A UNIQUE project is helping to bring redundant and broken hand tools back into use to benefit developing communities around the globe.

The Middlesbrough Tools Workshop, which is based at the Larchfield Community in Hemlington, is run by small local charity the Allied Resource Community.

The Tools Workshop works closely with volunteers, some of whom are disabled, to restore and renovate redundant hand tools.

Spare tools are packaged into trade-specific kits and shipped to developing communities across the world to improve their resilience and create opportunities for local enterprise.

Any surplus tools are sold to raise funds for Allied Resource Community and the Workshop also offers a repair service, available for a small fee.

The project is supported by One Planet Middlesbrough: Creating Sustainable Communities initiative, focusing on its key principles of ‘Zero Waste’ and ‘Sustainable Materials’.

Catherine Howell, of the One Planet Middlesbrough project, said: “The Middlesbrough Tools Workshop is a fantastic example of the outstanding environmental projects that are taking place right on our doorstep.

“Taking items that have been donated and discarded and saving them from disposal sits within our aims for the One Planet Middlesbrough project.”

The Middlesbrough Tools Workshop has its own website to showcase its work to the wider public at middlesbroughtoolsworkshop.org.uk