YOUNG people sick of hearing their town criticised have devised a poster campaign to boost community pride.

Members of the Shildon Ignite youth group came up with 22 reasons for residents to celebrate and be proud of where they come from.

The slogans have been printed onto posters which the youngsters will display around the town, on railings at Hackworth Park and at St John’s Church, for the next two weeks.

They hope everyone who passes them will take onboard the positive messages.

Youth worker Naomi Tomlinson said: “It is possibly because the area has a lot of deprivation, but unfortunately Shildon doesn’t have a great reputation.

“There are some people here and in other communities that don’t know how much we have that is positive.

“Four or five of the young people came up with this poster idea to highlight the good- they came up with plenty of quotes, slogans and facts that are positive and now want people to take notice.

“Young people sometimes get a bad reputation but there are some phenomenal young people here.”

Among the messages they want to spread are that 580 volunteers joined a guerrilla gardening event to make the town look pretty and 4,212 meals were given out by Shildon Alive’s foodbank thanks to local donations.

They want to highlight two schools- St John’s and Thornhill Primary Schools- which are rated outstanding by Ofsted and more than 400 young people who do voluntary work.

They are also proud of the local football team, drama groups, a shopping loyalty scheme and the Brownies group which celebrated its centenary last year.

Steph Callaghan , 17, a student at Bishop Auckland College, said: “We want to have positives heard not negatives all the time, we hope people will say where they live and not expect it to be put down.”

And Beth Ridley, 16, a pupil at King James I Academy in Bishop Auckland, added: “We want people to see Shildon as a better community, not look down on it but be proud and see what is good here.”