A BEAUTY spot of national importance for wildlife is being cleaned up by volunteers after it was vandalised.

The Ferryhill Carrs is one of the biggest wetland areas in the North-East.

It supports a large amount of rare birds and other wildlife and is a designated as a site of special scientific interest.

Vandals rampaged through the fragile habitat when it was shut during the foot-and-mouth crisis last year,

They damaged fences, ripped up wooden steps to make campfires and used air rifles and off-road motorcycles on the site.

A large amount of drug-taking equipment was found, including foil papers with drug residues on them.

On Sunday, volunteers moved on to the site to start restoration work and carrying out improvements.

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

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

The majority of the work will be completed in a month.

Sedgefield Borough Council's countryside officer, Jonathan Elmer, said a lot of the work involved making the site more accessible for visitors.

"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 is of fairly high importance.

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

Ferryhill police are drawing up an action plan to establish the extent of illegal activity at The Carrs.

They are working with Sedgefield Borough Council and the town council to find a solution to the problem of vandalism and disorder