A GROUP of award-winning Scouts were given a helping hand to put the finishing touches to their latest conservation project.

Members of the 17th St Aidan's troop, in Hartlepool, who have adopted a stretch of Greatham Beck, recently made ten bat boxes with help from Hartlepool College of Further Education's joinery workshop.

The beck is already one of the last retreats in the region for the endangered water vole, and it is hoped the bat boxes, put up in trees lining its banks, will encourage more wildlife to take up residence.

The boxes were put in place by professional climbers who scaled the trees to ensure the new bat homes were securely fastened.

The Scout troop, together with Cubs and supporters from St Paul's Scouts in Hartlepool, have an ongoing programme of tree and bulb planting, dam removal and litter clearance at the beck.

Last year, their efforts won them first prize in the environmental category of Northumbrian Water's Square Mile Project.

The Scouts have been working closely with Hartlepool Borough Council's countryside wardens, and warden Robert Smith said: "Until recently this valuable beck was suffering from neglect, vandalism and littering.

"This trend has now been well and truly reversed thanks to the help that these youngsters have given us.

"Sometimes their achievements are vandalised, but they refuse to be deterred.

"Their work inspires others and now Hartlepool College of Further Education has teamed up with ourselves.

"Fens Primary School and Manor College of Technology offered to help design and produce a magnificent interpretation board for the beck.