FOURTEEN distinguished North-East journalists were honoured yesterday when their families, friends and colleagues turned out in force to plant trees in their memory.

One of The Northern Echo's millennium projects last year was to help establish a community forest.

The scheme took place near Longnewton, between Darlington and Teesside.

The project led to the paper winning a BT award of £500 at this year's North-East Press Awards, at which The Northern Echo was also named North-East Newspaper of the Year.

The judges decided they wanted BT's community prize to go towards expanding The Northern Echo Millennium Wood in memory of journalists from the region who have died in recent years.

Yesterday, dozens of oak, ash, beech and cherry trees were planted on the Forest Enterprise land at Coatham Wood as part of the project supported by Tees Forest.

A bronze plaque was also unveiled in memory of the journalists: Jeremy Bennington, Tom Bergman, Maurice Brady, Arthur Coates, Tom Cordner, Eric Dobson, Mike Gilligan, Phil Hickey, Ian Holland, Steve Jones, Ken Robinson, Graeme Stanton, Mel Waggitt and Ian Weir.

About 170 trees were planted on the site last year and more than 200 have been added so far this year.

John Bailey, treasurer of the Tom Cordner North-East Press Awards, said: "The judges felt that this would be a wonderful way of remembering the deceased journalists for years to come."

Sarah Gibb, of Tees Forest, said: "It has been designed as a community forest, and this is a fantastic way of getting people involved.

"Hopefully, they will come back time and time again to see the trees growing as the years go by."

BT media relations manager Francis King said: "We wanted the prize to go to a strong environmental project and this fits the bill perfectly.

"The fact that it is also commemorating the work of the 14 journalists makes it even more worthwhile."