WORK to help refurbish a nationally important landscape has been delayed until newts have been counted.

Great crested newts are known to live in Hardwick Park, an 18th Century Georgian landscape near Sedgefield.

Now Durham County Council, the park's owner, has decided to delay work on trees on the estate until autumn so that a survey of the newts can be carried out.

Project manager Catherine Grezo said: "We know about the presence of great crested newts at Hardwick, but we don't yet have sufficient information about their range of distribution there.

"Initial surveys have indicated their presence in small numbers, but further surveys are required to tell us more.

"To avoid any possibility of accidentally disturbing them, we are putting back the tree work until autumn, by which time we should know how many newts there are and how we can take steps to protect them.

"We had intended to take out some trees while they are dormant and before the nesting season as part of the major restoration of the landscape. Waiting until the autumn to do the work won't delay the overall project."