A SECURE unit for troubled teenagers in Derwentside is to house a new centre especially for 17-year-old female offenders - if it is approved by planners.

The modern 16-bed building will be at Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in Corbridge Road, Consett.

The detention centre currently looks after 42 boys and girls aged 12-17, whose offending has become so serious they have been taken into custody.

The idea of the new centre is to separate the older girls from the younger ones so specialists can focus on their rehabilitation.

A similar centre has already opened in Surrey, where the girls can do vocational courses in subjects such as computing, cooking and hairdressing to equip them with useful skills when they rejoin mainstream society.

There are four others planned elsewhere in the country, but this will be the first in the North-East.

A planning application has been submitted to Derwentside District Council and nearby residents have been informed about the plans by letter.

Some have approached Medomsley ward Councillor Colin Bell with concerns about the scheme.

He said: "We were opposed to the secure training being there in the first place. We are not happy about it at all.

"At the minute, there is a five-a-side football pitch and people who live nearby can hear shouting and swearing when they are playing.

"The only thing that has been raised is how bad it is when they are playing outside.

"It has, in the past, been described as a university of crime and people do not want that on their doorsteps."

The centre houses violent offenders, persistent car thieves, shoplifters robbers and burglars. It is surrounded by two fences, the outer one is 1.8 metres high, the other, 5.2 metres high.

The Youth Justice Board is currently in talks with Medomsley Training Services, which runs the centre, about which will run the new unit.

A spokesman for the Youth Justice Board said: "This is a secure facility and the young people are not allowed to wander around on their own. This development will have no impact on the local community.

"It is about providing education and training to these young people so they can be rehabilitated and become normal law-abiding members of society when they are released."