A FUND set up to kick-start innovative community projects in County Durham has reached the £1m mark.

The LA21 Partnership Project Fund aims to inject cash into projects that would not otherwise get funding but which make a significant impact on the sustainable future of the county.

Set up by Durham County Council on November 4, 1995, the fund has about £10,000 a year available for grants and has now generated projects which attracted other finance and are worth a total of £1m.

The milestone coincides with the tenth anniversary of the scheme, which was called Local Agenda 21, but which has now been renamed Local Action 21.

Over the ten years of LA21, grants from the partnership fund have gone to schemes such as Cassop School's wind turbine feasibility study, the Chester-le-Street credit union, and the Walk to School campaign.

Councillor Bob Pendlebury, the county council's cabinet member for environment, said: "Often, grants have gone to a project that in itself has been quite small but which has led to a series of large-scale programmes being carried out.

"The Durham Biodiversity Action Plan was a recipient of a grant and is now hailed as the best in the country. Farmers markets all started from a food economy seminar and Walk to School, set up in 1999, is now a massive project.

"The fund continues to play a major role in pump-priming valuable projects that can make a real difference to the county's future."

The partnership has received international recognition and was presented to a world summit meeting in Johannesburg two years ago as a model example of sustainable development in action.

Following the summit, County Durham was the first to globally re-launch LA21 as Local Action 21.

LA 21, which has scooped a string of European, national and international awards, has grown to involve more than 1,800 organisations and individuals.

It has been commended as the most comprehensive partnership for sustainability in Europe and members include 275 businesses, more than 200 community groups, 360 schools and more than 100 district, town and parish councils.

The partnership's awards include the UK Green Apple Award for Greenest County Council in 1997 and 1999, the ICLEI European Sustainable Cities Award 1999 and the ICLEI LA21 Good Practice Award 2001.