YOUNG unemployed people will get stuck into important conservation work in stately grounds this week - and be paid to get their hands dirty.

The first trainees on Access the Environment project will descend on the National Trust's Gibside on the outskirts of Gateshead.

There they will remove four feet of silt from a ditch running along the length of Gibside's impressive tree-lined avenue - improve drainage and restore this original boundary.

The work is just one example of the wide range of environment enhancing projects which give trainees hands-on experience in conservation and horticulture at Gibside and in the countryside, public parks and community spaces of the Gateshead area.

Other activities include footpath construction, woodland management, grass cutting and fencing work.

The trainees, who all come from the Gateshead area, are directly employed by the National Trust and work towards an NVQ qualification