A PIONEERING initiative that helps communities tackle crime and disorder, and improve quality of life for residents, is being expanded.

A problem-solving workshop led by experts in enforcement, policing and community justice had such an impact on the Eden Hill Estate, in Peterlee, it is to be repeated in neighbouring Wingate on Monday.

The Eden Hill workshop, in June, focused on disorder, crime and vandalism around a small shopping centre in Eden Hill Road.

It resulted in a number of measures, including landscape improvements to make the area less attractive to trouble-makers. Work on the site will be completed in March next year.

"This has not rid Eden Hill of all its problems, but it has galvanised the community into taking another important step in the right direction," says Ken Wilson, of neighbourhood renewal organisation Communities First.

"The workshops bring together groups and service providers to tackle the crime and disorder issues that are blighting the lives of people living in the community."

More than 50 people from 13 different agencies attended the event, including Edenhill and Chapel Hill North Residents' Association, community workers and street wardens from Easington District Council, officers from Durham Constabulary and local councillors, as well as representatives of youth, health and community groups.

The programme was designed and led by Elms Associates Limited, a Darlington company that specialises in training and education programmes that provide people working in enforcement, policing, security and community justice with the skills needed to do their jobs more effectively.

Elms director Michael Wilkinson said: "The problem-solving workshops deal with real issues being faced by people in communities."

Monday's workshop, which will be attended by residents and representatives of organisations working in an area covered by the Wingate ward of Easington council, will be held in the Brandling Suite, Shotton Hall.

* For more information about workshops, call Elms Associates on (01325) 243823.