PARENTS are helping shape designs for new community activities in their neighbourhoods.

The first artist's impression of the new SureStart centres in Shildon and Newton Aycliffe reveal what the buildings will look like and the services that will be on offer to families.

The centre will have meeting rooms and public spaces for a range of activities, support services for parents and training courses ranging from baby massage to childcare training.

Gillian Allen, who joined other parents in having an input into the design, said: "It's going to be fantastic. Parents have worked really hard on the project and the community has been closely involved all the way so it's exciting to see what the buildings will look like."

Working within a £1m budget, the architects prepared the designs to work with the Victorian and 1960s architecture of the two sites. They will be modern buildings of brick and render with tiled roofs.

Simon Crowe, a director of Niven Architects, in Darlington, who designed the buildings, said: "The positive thing for us has been the wonderful enthusiasm parents showed at the meetings we have had during the design process.

"The end result will fulfil all the functions they wanted and be long term community assets."

Groups such as Tuneful Tots and Jellybabies will meet at the centres, multi-purpose rooms will host different activities and there will be sensory rooms to stimulate babies' development.

The new centres will open next spring in the grounds of Timothy Hackworth Primary School, in Shildon, and Stephenson Way Primary School, in Newton Aycliffe.