FOUR teenage boys have taken on the double challenge of cleaning up a town's graveyard and repairing the tarnished image of its youngsters.

The enterprising quartet have embarked on a mission to restore the land around St John's Church, in the centre of Shildon, which has become an eyesore.

They hope their efforts will impress Shildon's traders and residents, who have made frequent complaints about vandalism by young people, particularly in the recently restored Town Square, next to the church.

The youngsters' project has been entered for the Northumbrian Water Square Mile Challenge, which carries a top prize of an expenses-paid trip to South Africa.

The teenagers - John Foster, Christopher Saunders, Philip Wales and team leader Luke Munford - have called themselves the Youth Environment Agency.

They are now waiting to hear if they have been selected to go into the next round of the competition after a visit from assessors.

They are all year nine students at Sunnydale School, in Shildon, where teacher Les Dobson is overseeing their efforts.

He said: "They had to decide what to do and Luke suggested they would like to do something with the church. The graveyard is in a prominent part of the town.

"They have set out to create a pleasant area for everyone in Shildon to enjoy. The area has been used for under-age drinking and there is a real litter problem. It is also used by people to exercise dogs, which results in fouling."

After conducting a survey the boys identified five main problems. They set about cleaning the grassed areas, removing debris, cleaning pathways, improving the presentation of graves and repairing and cleaning graffiti from the church doors.

Mr Dobson said: "They are not just working to the end of the competition, because they won't be able to get the whole of the churchyard completed in that time.

"They are going to continue right through to the summer to finish the job."