A £150,000 lift that gives wheelchair users access to Darlington Library for the first time has been officially opened.

Disabled people and mothers with pushchairs have campaigned for years to have better access to the library on Crown Street, which has steep steps leading up to its main entrance.

As well as a new entrance and lift, the library has new carpets - including colour-coded ones for the visually impaired - lower counters, utomatic doors and wider aisles, hearing loops and disabled toilets.

Disabled user Josie Collins said: "I have not been able to use the library since I moved to Darlington in 1995.

"I have effectively been barred from it but the lift means I can go back in there again. It has made such a difference."

At the official opening, Eleanor Lister, Darlington Borough Council's cabinet member for education, was presented with a £1,000 cheque from the Valerie Portass Memorial Fund to start a project to update the local studies' photographic record of Darlington.

Ms Portass was secretary of the Darlington Workers' Education Association until her death in January and was a keen user of the library's local studies section.