A WATER wheel in an area of rural Derwentside has vanished from the landscape after campaigners said it was making the place look like the "Wild West".

The wheel at Knitsley Mill leisure complex, Knitsley, near Consett, was taken down by the owners during extension work.

But when they applied to Derwentside District Council for permission to re-erect the wheel, councillors turned them down.

The councillors had taken note of a letter of objection by the Council for the Protection of Rural England, County Durham branch.

The branch secretary Kathryn Gander said: "We felt it was not appropriate for an unauthentic feature to be so visually prominent in a development which was once an attractive corner of Derwentside. The wheel was more reminiscent of the "Wild West than rural County Durham".

Council leader Alex Watson, who could not take part in the debate as his nephew works at the leisure complex, said councillors had a number of other concerns relating to the history of planning applications at the site.

No one from the Knitsley Mill complex was available for comment.