HEXHAM Town Council has welcomed the decision by Northumberland County Council to allocate £5m from its capital budget towards redevelopments in the town.

At Monday's meeting of the full town council Coun. Derek Kennedy proposed they welcome the funding, adding that they would like to work with the county council in deciding upon solutions at key sites, including the former bus station and former Beales building.

He said: "We want to ensure the £5m is spent and Hexham has developments to be proud of."

Coun. Penny Grennan said: "I think this is a really important principle. We know what the people of Hexham want."

She added that work on the redevelopments needs to be carried out in a "timely way".

"These sites have been rumbling on for I don't know how long and it's not acceptable," she said.

Coun. Wojciech Ploszaj, NCC Cabinet Member for Business, said: "The council does have £5 million allocated in their capital programme for the ongoing regeneration of Hexham town centre, and we will be working with the Town Council to look at opportunities and solutions for a number of key sites in the town.

"However both the old bus station and the Beales store are not ours, and we are continuing to discuss the acquisition of the bus station site with the current owners."