IT has been hailed as a historic document and panned as pie-in-the-sky, but a long-awaited regeneration strategy is bound to have an impact on one of the North-East's most deprived corners.

A Task Force set up to revive remote Weardale, in County Durham, has taken 18 months to produce a multi-million pound plan for reversing the job losses and economic decline threatening to turn the area into little more than a dormitory dale.

Summaries of the strategy, called Renewing Weardale, were posted to 4,000 homes on Monday and residents were urged to "make it work" at a high-profile launch yesterday.

The task of convincing residents will fall to the force's new chairman John Hamilton, who will spend the next six weeks meeting with parish councils and other groups.

Seven flagship projects are the key to the strategy's success. The most ambitious - and, for some, the most fanciful - is the development of Lafarge Cement's old Blue Circle site at Eastgate into a unique 'Eco Disney' model village featuring hot springs unique in the UK and fuelled by other natural energy sources.

This, said the Task Force, was the single most influential project with the greatest potential to create jobs.

The other key projects are:

* Reopening the 18-mile Weardale Railway line from Eastgate to Bishop Auckland, linked to Shildon's new National Rail Museum.

* Wolsingham Business Park would accommodate business units and 70 new homes on land next to Weardale Steel, creating 80 jobs.

* A Broadband network, offering fast Internet access.

* The Stanhope Market Town Initiative is already under way, operated by the Countryside Agency and One NorthEast.

* A Rural Bureau at Stanhope to advise local businesses, bringing together all support agencies may be extended to Teesdale.

* Harperley Camp, on the edge of Weardale, is being developed as a themed prisoner of war museum by owners James and Lisa McLeod.

Chairman Mr Hamilton said: "During the next ten years the strategy, if accepted by the people who live and work in Weardale, could revolutionise the economy of the dale."

But John Shuttleworth, Durham County Councillor for Weardale, said: "I am not convinced that everything can work. Some elements are simply pie-in-the-sky."