A WASTE company has pledged it will consider other sites before pressing ahead with the development of a rubbish skips depot.

The announcement follows protests from people in Wolsingham, Weardale, that Durham County Waste Management was planning to site the skips next to a riverside caravan park.

After talks with Wolsingham Parish Council, the waste company said it had issued "an open invitation" to local people to put forward ideas for alternative sites.

The company has identified the controversial site, just yards from the Oakleaf caravan park, as a replacement for its waste dump at Brown Houses, Frosterley, which will have to close soon.

The caravan park's owners, Robsons of Wolsingham, have said that if the skips move in, their residents will move out, having a detrimental effect on trade in the town.

Local people say the proposed site is too close to the town centre.

But Alan Hodgson, Durham Waste Management's technical director, said yesterday it had not yet registered a formal planning application.

He said: "We have been asked to provide more detailed information by the county council and the Wolsingham proposal is still under discussion. We have looked at another 12 sites in the area - and we are open to further suggestions.