An environmental charity says there is a need to compensate for decades of heavy industrialisation.

Saltmarshes could be restored to protect natural habitats on the banks of two rivers and help tackle climate change by storing carbon.

Environmental charity Groundwork North East & Cumbria has applied to Newcastle and Sunderland councils for permission for work at two sites on the rivers Wear and Tyne.

This would “compensate for centuries of heavy industrialisation” during which riverbanks were built on, the charity said.