YOUNGSTERS in Shildon will soon be able to track down the hottest spots in town thanks to a new mobile phone app.

The Shildon Children & Young People's Action Network (SCYPAN) is behind the scheme which cost nearly £8,000 to create for smartphones.

The final touches are still being put to the app, to be called My Shildon, to ensure that it fulfils all of the criteria requested by SCYPAN.

It will be available for free to download and the app will list young people’s activities, libraries and other points of interest.

Families will be able to access the locations of schools in the town and to find out information about exam results, teachers and the schools.

David Tomlinson, of SCYPAN, said: “People say that things are not happening in Shildon but there are lots of things happening, it’s just that people don’t know about them.

“We wanted to get our message across to them in a way that they would respond.

“We consulted with the youngsters and they didn’t want to be given pieces of paper they wanted to hear of things through their mobile phones.”

Councillors Henry Nicholson and Trish Pemberton, of Durham County and Shildon Town councils, have both given money to the project via their council neighbourhood budgets.

It is set to go live on Tuesday, May 26, and it will be on offer from the Apple store and posters with a code to access the app will be put up round Shildon.

The SCYPAN group is to promote the Shildon app through the town’s school in the hope that it will be picked up the youngsters.