TEENAGERS from three comprehensive schools have shown they have the talent to become the planners and builders of the future.

The students were set the challenge of establishing their own construction company in a bid to redevelop Bishop Auckland Football Club's former Kingsway ground.

Pupils from Sunnydale Comprehensive School, Shildon, became the first winners of the Construction Challenge, with their design for a multiplex unit containing a cinema, bowling alley and shops.

The team - Natasha Belchamber, Paul Batten, Kelly Ann Brown, Luke Munford, Terrimarie Proudfoot, Michaela Quinn, Anna Robinson, Laura Scott, Ian Smith and Neil Trotter - were presented with trophies and £500 for the school.

Cinema was a common theme with Bishop Auckland schools. Bishop Barrington, the runners-up, and St John's RC School both featured them in their designs.

All three designs and models were on display at the final at Auckland Castle yesterday.

The competition was the initiative of Bishop Auckland company M and M Plasline. It has been backed by the Construction Industry Training Board, County Durham Education Business Partnership, Durham County Council and a number of companies, business agencies and councils.

John Straughan, of M and M Plasline, said it would become an annual event

He said: "I am extremely pleased and impressed with everything that the students have done, and I am glad that people have taken the time and effort to make it a successful event. I am looking forward to doing it again next year."