A ROOT and branch check is to be made on art works in Darlington Borough Council's collection.

Until the £4,000 audit is done, all action on the collection could be suspended - even though storage arrangements are said to be unsatisfactory and could be damaging some pieces.

Councillors were yesterday considering a detailed report on the position regarding the works of art.

Members of the environment scrutiny committee have been investigating the financing of buying works of art for future generations, paying special attention to setting a budget and devising a buying policy.

A review group comprising councillors Dorothy Long, Isobel Hartley and Stella Robson found that there were about 500 pictures in the council art collection - some on loan to other organisations.

They also found there was no documented policy for management and funding of the pieces or for buying new works of art.

There is £2,610 in a fine arts fund and two sums of money in the Manley bequest of £3,049 and £1,750.

Last year, the council failed in a bid for lottery cash for dedicated gallery space in the Blanche Pease building, a part-time keeper and a new roller racking system for the collection.

The bid included a report from the then fine art curator at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle for the council to have its collection audited.

This is getting under way at a cost of £4,100 and should take six months to complete.

Two conservation experts will do a full audit, to include an assessment of the condition of individual pieces. It will also provide a digital image of each piece of art.

The idea is to make a summary of the audit available on the council web site so the collection is available to the public.

The review group also looked at insurance and the handling of bequests of art work. It said the way the collection was stored in various locations was unsatisfactory and could be causing damage.

The three councillors think it would be wise to wait until the audit was done before making any firm recommendations about the collection.

But they felt a policy for the future should be developed and want to see a better storage system and conservation work on the most vulnerable pieces.

Items with no historical interest or value should be disposed of, they said.