A TIRELESS campaigner who championed the elderly and saved a vital piece of North-East rail heritage has been awarded the MBE.

Pensioner Ted Defty, of Clough Dene, Tantobie, near Stanley, County Durham, was awarded the honour for his contribution to the community.

The former chairman of Stanley Urban District Council and Labour party constituency chairman, he was instrumental in saving Causey Arch, near Stanley, the oldest surviving railway bridge in the world.

He led a campaign during the 1970s when the bridge was in danger of collapse, and saw it successfully restored.

Mr Defty, a former miner, also founded the Hobson Golf Course, near Stanley, and set up the Derwentside Werdohl Friendship Club, which twinned the district with the German industrial region.

He was chairman of Stanley Civic Arts Society for 36 years until it became the Lamplight Arts Centre, last year.

As chairman of Welfare for the Aged for 25 years, he also led campaigns to improve life for pensioners in north Durham, including a drive for free TV licences.

The lifetime Labour stalwart has no qualms about accepting his MBE.

He said: "Some like it and some don't, but I feel honoured. For someone to even nominate me was very kind."

Others awarded honours include Paul Garvin, Chief Constable of Durham Constabulary, who receives the Queen's Police Medal.

Mr Garvin, who took up the post in September 2002, sits on the Association of Chief Police Officers' (ACPO) crime committee and is ACPO's spokesman on technology in crime investigation.

Mr Garvin said: "I am absolutely thrilled. I have been fortunate to work with some tremendous people over the years, who have delivered a great deal in terms of policing in local communities.

"I think of myself as fortunate in being here in Durham as chief constable of what I regard as the best force in the country."

Michael Adamson, 67, managing director of Ramside Estates, in Durham, receives the MBE for services to hospitality and tourism in the North-East.

Margaret Edith Burns, of Blackhall, near Peterlee, an environmentalist and expert on the east Durham coastline, receives the MBE for services to conservation.

Mrs Burns has been a mainstay of groups such as Durham Wildlife Trust and served as a volunteer Countryside Ranger for Durham County Council, but has stepped down from her posts due to ill health.