A TEAM of young people who turned old jeans into bags, pencil cases and other accessories has won this year's Future Business Magnates title.

The group from Belmont School Community Arts College, named Decycle, was tonight named winners of the competition to find young entrepreneurs of tomorrow at an awards ceremony in Ramside Hall Hotel, on the outskirts of Durham.

Students from eight County Durham secondary schools have been working for months with entrepreneurs to develop their ideas.

The triumphant team was announced following a formal dinner with the guest speaker, Falklands War veteran Simon Weston.

County Durham firefighter David Turnbull, who is chairman of Durham District Local Strategic Partnership, which organised the competition, said: "It has gone brilliantly well and the youngsters have been purely inspirational.

"It goes to show, with a little bit of assistance these young people can come up trumps.

"These are our future and have all had brilliant ideas but Belmont have shone through particularly brightly."

After the first three rounds, Belmont had been languishing in fifth place, but fought back to third place on the eve of the final.

During today's nerve-wracking final presentation, the Belmont team, backed by business studies teacher Anita Patterson and mentor Christine Yule, from Durham Business Club, impressed the judges and overtook leaders Framwellgate School and second place Durham School to take the title.

Made up of between eight and ten year eight students, each team worked with their mentor on a series of six-weekly challenges.

Judges awarded points for research, teamwork, creativity and originality, time management and planning, as well as for overall quality.

Judge Ron Batty said: "It has been a very tough choice but Belmont had that extra something special.

"They were consistent throughout and ticked all of the boxes."

The competition was sponsored by The Northern Echo, Yorkshire Bank, Lafarge and the North-East Chamber of Commerce among various other organisations.

Rick Warburton, managing partner of Yorkshire Bank, said: "This is the second year we have been involved and it just gets better and better.

"Yorkshire Bank likes to get involved in the community and what better way than to try to encourage people to be the next Richard Branson or Sir Alan Sugar."

The winners will won a prize of £3,000, as well as a trophy for their school and £100 each for members of the winning team.

*FINAL LEAGUE TABLE 1. Belmont School Community Arts College - 872 points 2. Framwellgate School Durham - 865 3. Durham School - 845 4. Fyndoune Community College - 839 5. Durham Johnston - 834 6. St Leonard's RC School - 771 7. Durham High School For Girls 749 8. Durham Community Business College - 740