RUBBISH tips in County Durham have been given an environmentally-friendly facelift.

The new style of household waste recycling centres have been created with the help of a £1.7m grant from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The money is being used by Durham County Council to upgrade ten sites and create features such as recycling points for glass, cans and paper, household waste recycling skips, and elevated internal roadways and access gantries, which allow people to drop waste into skips.

Six of the tips: Potterhouse, in Durham; Horden; Tudhoe; Strangford Road, near Seaham; Annfield Plain; and Heighington, have been completed, with work on the remaining four due to finish in March.

A completion ceremony will be held at the Heighington Household Waste Recycling Centre, Newton Aycliffe, tomorrow.

The county council's cabinet member for waste, Councillor John Davies, said: "These major improvements to turn the sites into household waste recycling centres will make them more user-friendly and extend recycling opportunities for the public."