THREE inspirational young people who have battled to improve facilities for their peers on a Darlington estate have been recognised in The Northern Echo's Positive Young People awards.

Ashleigh Marriner, Annie Bowman and Michael Coates, of the Red Hall estate, were nominated for their "hard work and selfless commitment" to improving the quality of life for other young people in their area.

The trio help every week at the community centre youth club and also attend meetings of the Red Hall Partnership, the community centre management committee, and the area youth partnership, to make sure the views of young people are aired.

Annie also recently completed a sports leadership in volleyball so she can offer coaching for young people in Red Hall.

She said: "It's a really great achievement for us to win this award. Most of the work we do is trying to combat anti-social behaviour and we can do this by creating more things for people to do."

Michael said: "We are trying to build bridges between the young people and the older people in Red Hall. We are even thinking about setting up a games night for people of all ages to come to so the older people don't feel intimidated by us.

"When we haven't got much to do, we meet each other outside the local shop and sometimes the older people feel intimidated by that. But we are not going to do anything bad and we hope by meeting us they will realise that."

Sue Davidson, a volunteer at the youth club, who nominated the trio, said: "Ashleigh, Annie and Michael are incredible young people. Their hard work and selfless commitment to getting more activities for other young people is very impressive."