A SURVEY measuring the impact of litter, dog fouling and other neighbourhood nuisances on the lives of residents will help focus efforts to spruce up an east Durham village.

Durham County Council is carrying out the research in Easington Colliery in a bid to identify the issues that most concern local people.

The results will be used to set priorities for the authority’s Street Champions scheme, which gives residents the chance to get involved in making their area a cleaner, greener and safer place.

Helen Douglas, Pride in Easington officer, said: "Street Champions was set up to encourage people to take more responsibility for their local community.

"However, it’s important that the problems we try to address through the scheme reflect the concerns of the residents themselves.

"The survey will not only help us prioritise the issues we need to focus on but will also give us an idea of the scale of the problems we need to tackle.

"We can then carry out a similar survey at a later date and compare the results to find out what we have achieved."

The questionnaire covers a number of areas including litter, dog fouling, graffiti, flytipping and community safety.