THE second phase of an ambitious retail and leisure venture was opened yesterday.

Fifteen months after Dalton Park opened its shopping malls on land reclaimed from the disused Murton Colliery site, regeneration work has created a parkland of woodlands, wetlands, lakes and meadows.

Many tonnes of colliery shale were removed for the development, leaving a dramatic landscape of sweeping hills and valleys skirting the A19 road.

With the shopping mall now well established, regeneration work has been continuing on the 55 acres of surrounding colliery land.

The parkland was opened yesterday by the leader of the Easington District Council, Councillor Alan Napier.

The outdoor facility includes seven different wildlife habitat zones.

Wetland areas vary from shallow pools, which dry out in the summer, to deep lakes providing refuge for birds and amphibians.

The parkland design incorporates a series of pathways which take visitors up terraced mounds, across boardwalks and bridges, through wetlands and meadows and across peaks and lookouts.

Signs and interpretation panels have been installed to tell the story of the creation of Dalton Park.

A spokeswoman for the development said yesterday: "Already nature is beginning to colonise the parkland and species such as kestrels have already been spotted soaring above the meadows."

Schoolchildren carried out tree-planting after the opening.

From tomorrow until Sunday a French market will visit the retail centre.