A Newton Aycliffe schoolgirl has been named Young Environmentalist of the Year at a star-studded ceremony in London.

Nine-year-old Kayleigh Edge beat off strong competition to pick up the award, just beating her sister Charlotte into second place.

Her mother, Mandy, works at GlaxoSmithKline, at Barnard Castle, one of the competition sponsors, and she encouraged her children to enter.

Kayleigh, who was runner-up in the competition last year, completed a project called Water Conservation in the Home.

Mrs Edge said: "She looked at the amount of water our particular household uses for things like bathing, washing-up and washing the car. She calculated how much we were wasting and we did our best to cut down by taking showers, sharing baths and not using hosepipes and saved a considerable amount."

Her eight-year-old sister Charlotte, who was only old enough to enter the competition by a few days, completed a project called Wild Flowers Near My Home.

She spent the year looking at wild plants near her home in Bluebell Way, drawing and categorising them.

Kayleigh and Charlotte, who both attend Woodham Burn Primary School in Newton Aycliffe, travelled to the Dorchester Hotel in London for the finals.

The ceremony was attended by a host of celebrity guests, including Michael Aspel, Les Dennis and Paul Daniels.

The girls were thrilled to learn they had finished first and second in the youngest age group. Kayleigh won a week's holiday in Dorset and is going to take her sister, while Charlotte won £25 worth of book tokens.

Northumbrian Water, one of the competition's sponsors, was so impressed by Kayleigh's entry that it has asked to have a closer look at it. Mrs Edge said: "We didn't really expect them to win, so it was a really great day out."

Also at the Dorchester Hotel in London for the awards ceremony was 10-year-old Emily Giblin, from St Wilfrid's RC School, Bishop Aukland, who finished runner-up in the Young Environmentalist of the Year Awards.

She devoted her time to a project outlining the predicament of animals which were nearing extinction and looked at what could be done to save them.

Her efforts gained her the runner-up spot in the Thames Water category of the awards.

Proud parents Peter and Bernadette accompanied her to the awards ceremony

Mr Giblin said: "Emily loves animals we are really proud of her. We had a really lovely day.'