A DRAMATIC display will celebrate the completion of a £10m clean-up scheme which has transformed East Durham's coastline.

Thousands of people are expected to take up the free invitation to a light and firework display which will be staged along 18 miles of shore.

The Sea of Lights will be presented on September 9, when 30,000 fireworks and 4,000kg of explosives will light up the night sky. The display will be located on three cliff-top sites and on three ships moored a kilometre offshore.

There will also be a bank of ten Second World War searchlights illuminating the coast, a line of 50 gas beacons and a number of huge fire sculptures devised by the Dodgy Clutch Theatre Company.

Beginning at 7pm, the show is expected to last for about 15 minutes.

Schoolchildren from across east Durham will do their part by making lanterns from willow branches.

The event will be choreographed to music written by local musician Jes Lowe. Century Radio will also be broadcasting live to the audience.

Sea of Lights has been devised as a public celebration of the work of Turning the Tide (TTT), a partnership of 14 organisations which has spent five years and £10m regenerating the coastline.

Three viewing sites have been set aside by TTT - at Dawdon, Easington Colliery and Crimdon caravan park.

The curve of the coast is such that from each location the public will get a perfect view of the celebrations.

The show marks the completion of TTT's project, which aimed at reversing the effects of 100 years of coal mining.

During the five-year scheme, more than 1.3 million tonnes of spoil have been removed from the beaches.