AN officer has been appointed to take on the task of encouraging people from across Europe to sample the delights of Consett and Stanley.

Sam Richardson, 25, is the the new project development officer for tourism at Derwentside District Council in the Consett and Stanley area.

It is a business worth about £19m a year to the district, according to the only available figures - in a 1997 report by a Northumbria University research project team.

She has already been involved in a campaign to attract more cyclists to the district, which brought more than 100 calls from the region in a week.

Miss Richardson is convinced there is scope to develop tourism, even away from the highly-successful Tanfield Railway Centre and Beamish Museum.

She is involved with the Virtual Tourism Centre website, which the council is creating. It will have a map of the district including restaurants and hotels. People will be able to click on to the map point to receive information.

She has also been in discussions about a planned heritage centre and Derwentside museum. Plans are under way to apply for cash for a feasibility study.

Miss Richardson, from Bishop Auckland, graduated from Sunderland University with a BSc in tourism development and worked at Teesvalley Development Company and at Durham University