THE hunt is on to find people, young and old, who have made the most telling contribution to life in Chester-le-Street.

To celebrate the millennium, the town's district council is repeating its Young Achievers Award and introducing a new category of Civic Awards.

The Civic Awards will be made to people, or groups, in recognition of outstanding contributions to the community.

Councillor Keith Lambert, deputy leader of Chester-le-Street District Council, said: "We first introduced the scheme as a way of marking the contribution of young people to life in the district.

"Young people are often criticised for causing trouble, but we are aware that many of them have a positive effect on their community or have shown remarkable personal achievement

"We wanted to extend this scheme to mark the achievements of those who contributed over their lives to helping the community, so we introduced the Civic Awards," he said.

The closing date for nominations is Friday, November 17.

Nomination forms are available from the leisure services manager, Chester-le-Street District Council, Civic Centre, Chester-le-Street, DH3 3UT.