A HABITAT of national importance for wildlife has been cleaned up by volunteers after being badly vandalised.

Ferryhill Carrs is one of the biggest wetland areas in the North-East, supporting a large number of rare birds and other wildlife and is a designated site of special scientific interest.

But vandals rampaged through the fragile habitat when it was shut during the foot-and-mouth crisis last year, damaging fences, ripping up wooden steps to burn on campfires and illegally using air-rifles and off-road motorcycles.

A large amount of drugs equipment was found on the site, including foil papers with drugs residues on them.

Over the last few years, volunteers have worked hard on the fenland, planting hedges and clearing scrub and maintaining the delicate vegetation of rushes and grasses.

On Sunday volunteers moved on to the site once more - to start to restore it and to improve access for people.

Throughout the weekend Sedgefield Countryside Volunteers and British Conservation Trust Volunteers repaired old footpaths, created new ones, repaired structural damage and built new steps.

The majority of improvements will be completed within a month.

Sedgefield Borough Council's countryside officer Jonathan Elmer said a lot of the work involved making the site more accessible and safer for people to wander around.

"The aim was to bring it back to the condition it was before and to improve it as well, to make it a better site for people to visit, so they can walk around in safety without difficult slopes to navigate.

"These sites are few and far between and particular breeds of birds can only live in these kind of areas, so it's of fairly high importance.

"The site is also important because it's so close to Ferryhill and people in the town can use it and explore it."

Ferryhill police are currently drawing up an action plan to establish the extent of illegal activity at The Carrs and are working with Sedgefield Borough Council and the town council to find a solution to the problem of vandalism and disorder.