PENSIONERS in a North-East town have been given some warming news as the region prepares for its coldest winter in decades.

Elderly residents of Shildon, County Durham, will receive more money from the Cold Weather Payments scheme following a decision to collect readings from a weather station closer to the town.

Previously, payments have been judged on the temperature in Linton-on-Ouse, in North Yorkshire - about 50 miles away - but now Meteorological Office readings will be taken from Boltshope Park weather station, in County Durham.

It comes following a campaign spanning more than a year by Shildon town councillor Gary Huntingdon, who believes the readings will now be far more accurate and as such ensure pensioners are awarded more money.

He said: "Linton-on-Ouse is much further south and we thought that was unfair as it was so far away.

"I've been on at the Department for Work and Pensions for some time and finally we've managed it.

"The reading will be much more accurate at Boltshope Park so it's a more fair way of doing it. It's a result because it will mean elderly people here getting what they are entitled to whereas before they've been losing out."

The news is a timely boost, as forecasters are predicting the coldest winter since the 1960s and fear more than 5,000 pensioners could die as a result.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that about 4,700 elderly people died in the North-East and Yorkshire last winter - 800 more than the year before.

But the increase in Cold Weather Payments will mean added financial support for elderly and vulnerable people in Shildon and the DL4 postcode area who need extra help in paying for their winter fuels when the temperature drops below freezing.

Benefits minister James Plaskitt said that the changes to the reading for Shildon were part of a review carried out each year to the scheme.

He said: "The Meteorological Office have advised us that DL4 is more closely related to Boltshope Park and should, for the future, be linked to Boltshope Park."