NEW sponsors have been announced for a County Durham-based environmental awards ceremony.

The national Countryside Agency has donated £500 to sponsor the Durham County Council's millennium 2000 Environment Award.

Open to community groups, schools, companies and individuals the award is designed to encourage good guardianship of the built and natural environment.

Now Capital Waste Management has also come on board to sponsor one of the five main categories of wards.

County council cabinet member Don Ross said: "We received more than 50 entries last year for the various categories of the award and hopefully we can attract even more this year.

"Each year the standard of the entries seems to reach new heights which can mean only good news for the county - if not the hard-working judges who have to come to a final decision."

Last year, the 12-year-old awards attracted projects ranging from the creation of a butterfly meadow at Newton Aycliffe to a reclamation of a former maintenance yard at Chester-le-Street and the restoration of the North-East turret crowning the pinnacle of the Chapel of Nine Altars at Durham Cathedral.

To be eligible for the five categories of the 2000 Environment Award, projects should have been completed in 2000 except for tree planting which should have been established for at least five years.

The five categories are: the built environment, the natural environment and countryside improvement, the management and restoration of minerals and waste disposal, schools Local Agenda 21 and access for all.

For entry forms and more information call 0191-383 3347