North-East plant contractor Owen Pugh (Site Services) has pledged to continue a project designed to reintroduce a rare butterfly to a quarry near South Shields.

The company bought the quarry at Marsden last year and decided to continue funding plans to introduce more than 600 rock rose, the staple food plant of the Durham argus which is extinct on Tyneside and Wearside.

The rose will be planted on a site next to the quarry in June, after which 50 butterflies will be reintroduced