RESIDENTS and business people have seen the vision for their town centre– created around plans to redevelop a dated shopping precinct.

Durham County Council, Hellens Group and Aldi have drawn up a proposal for the Festival Walk area of Spennymoor, County Durham.

Plans for the regeneration scheme were displayed at a pre-planning consultation event at Spennymoor Town Hall yesterday and will move to Spennymoor Leisure Centre, where Helen Goodman MP hosts a public meeting tonight at 6pm.

A spokesperson for Hellens Group said: "We are upgrading most of Festival Walk to create a number of refurbished retail units along the parade, to deliver a more modern shopping environment for the local community.

"The plans would also see part of the existing parade demolished to create space for a new Aldi food store. This represents a multi-million-pound investment in Spennymoor and will create new jobs both in retail and via the supply chain during construction.

"Some of the existing retail units at Festival Walk will remain and be refurbished by us to provide more contemporary units for retailers to invest in."