AN innovative service for drug and alcohol addicts in the Sedgefield area has been relaunched.

The High Street Project offers health advice and support for people abusing drugs and alcohol.

It includes counselling and detox services, a needle exchange and acupuncture treatment.

The service is available from various centres in the Sedgefield district, with its main office in Spennymoor High Street.

The High Street Project was set up in April 1988, initially working in Ferryhill and Spennymoor, but over the past four years it has expanded to cover the whole of the Sedgefield district.

During the past few months, major work has been completed in the High Street Project office to meet health and safety needs and improve the environment for staff and users.

Staff from the North East Council on Addiction (NECA), County Durham and Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust and Disc work together to provide the services.

More than 120 people attended the relaunch, including Darlington Football Club players Keith Finch and Gary Pearson, who presented achievement awards to volunteers and a signed Sunderland shirt to the winner of a raffle.

David Cliff, from the County Durham Drug Action Team, which recently gave the project £67,000, said: "This improved service reflects the kind of joint working approaches that are so important in providing effective treatment services.

"It gets a vital service to members of the Sedgefield community with a particularly complex range of social and medical needs."

Members of the public wanting to know more about the services can contact the project on (01388) 817330.