A NEW supermarket which is expected to breathe life into a rundown area of Durham is to open in August.

The 69,000 sq ft Tesco store being built on the site of the former Hugh Mackay carpet factory, at Dragonville, will admit its first customers on Monday, August 6.

The store will employ 440 people and, in a pioneering scheme, the company is taking on long-term unemployed local people.

It has set up a regeneration partnership with local authorities and is offering training and help with child care.

About half the people taken on so far live within two miles of the store, which is in an area that has the city's highest unemployment rate.

Store manager Tony Watson said: "We have been watching the construction of the store for 40 weeks now and are getting really excited as the big day approaches.

"The store is unique to the North-East, as it is the first of Tesco's pioneering regeneration schemes in the region.

"The scheme aims to ensure that as many long-term unemployed people as possible given the opportunity for employment within the store through the job guarantee scheme.

"The work of the Dragonville Partnership, which was formed a year ago, has resulted in over £3m a year going back into the local community in the form of salaries.

"By working with the Employment Service, county and city councils, Sherburn Road Regeneration Initiative and three training providers in the city, the partnership has equip-ped 200 local unemployed people with the necessary skills to re-enter employment."

Durham City Council hopes the new store will draw shoppers who currently drive across the city to go to the Arnison Centre, Pity Me.