WHAT could be the region's first food access worker is to be appointed soon, as a healthy eating campaign shifts up a gear.

Joanne Coady, co-ordinator of the Five A Day healthy eating programme, announced the development as she handed out leaflets at Darlington's first farmers' market in living memory.

Shoppers wandered around the stalls as pupils from Abbey Road Junior School in Darlington performed their play The Good Food Gang.

The job of the Government-funded worker will be to visit selected areas of Darlington and the Durham Dales to assess whether local people have difficulties in buying fresh fruit and vegetables at affordable prices.

The food access worker will then draw up a plan to meet the needs of local people, which could lead to food co-operatives, food cafes and allotments being established.

Lessons learned from the pilot scheme, which is one of five in England, could form the basis of a national campaign.

Government experts say eating five portions of fruit and vegetables every day can help keep serious illness at bay.

Skerne Parke and Red Hall estates in Darlington will be targeted, plus Crook and Willington in Weardale, and Cockfield and Evenwood in Teesdale.

The farmers market in Darlington's Market Square last Friday was declared a success.

Ms Coady said two more farmers markets are planned in Darlington, on November 10 and December 22.