A UNIQUE Poppy Appeal badge is being created to symbolise a town's support of the military community and to commemorate the centenary of the First World War.

Residents of Spennymoor will be able to buy a special charity pin featuring the town's war memorial surrounded by a poppy wreath, as part of this year's Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

One of the town's poppy appeal organisers Pete Molloy is working alongside John Humphreys, managing director of TA Plastics in Tudhoe, on the project.

For the past five years Mr Humphreys has designed and commissioned a poppy pin which he has sold in aid of the Royal British Legion.

In that time he has sold about 2,000 of the badges and raised between £400 and £1,300 each year for the charity.

But this year he was running out of ideas so Mr Molloy came up with a design that symbolises the town's respect for the Armed Forces past and present and to mark 100 years since the end of the 1914-18 conflict.

Mr Molloy said: "I thought it would be something different to put the town's war memorial on the badge, specific to Spennymoor to commemorate the centenary of the end of WWI with all profits going to the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal."

Mr Humphreys and his company have been big supporters of the military community for around 14 years.

He began supporting the Armed Forces, Reserves, ex-service personnel and families when two of his staff were deployed to Iraq with the Territorial Army with a week's notice.

He said: "It pretty much started there and my awareness and involvement has grown.

"As an organisation we got a gold award from Prince William for our efforts for the Armed Forces and I continue to maintain that commitment.

"I've seen the sheer numbers of people attending the cenotaph at Spennymoor increase significantly so know the town remembers and cares.

"I was more than happy when Pete came up with this idea."

To gauge how many badges should be ordered the men want to hear from individuals, retailers and organisations that would buy or sell them. Mr Humphreys can be contacted on 01388-814858 or john.humphreys@taplastics.co.uk