VOLUNTEERS at a community centre threatened with closure fear a potential lifeline offered by Durham County Council will be too late.

Trustees of The Shildon Centre announced last week they expected to close the venue and its support services at the end of the month.

They said the centre, in the town's Main Street, could not survive after failing to secure Lottery cash for a key project.

But the leader of Durham County Council, Councillor Albert Nugent, yesterday held talks with senior officers, councillors and supporters to create a rescue package.

The authority ended funding of the service on April 1 and agreed to pay staff costs, but not running costs, for two more months. It had been hoped that the new management committee could secure grants to keep going. But the committee's first major grant application was turned down.

Coun Nugent now says that the authority is considering offering free use of the building and to pay for basic running costs.

He said the biggest annual cost of maintaining the centre had been its staff and, while they could not be met, a new group of supporters had come forward to see if they could run the centre at a reduced capacity.

He said: "We now understand there is a group of volunteers who think that services provided from the Shildon Centre are of tremendous value to community life in the town and that they are looking for a way for a phoenix to arise from the ashes."

Nick Biggs, vice-chairman of the management committee, said: "People of Shildon have known about these problems since early last year and the management committee has been getting stuck in to try to save it.

"The 11th hour attempt by the county council has come too late. I didn't see many of these new supporters coming to the fore but it is essential we all work together to see what can be done.

"It sounds like they want to physically keep the building open, but the Shildon Centre is much more than the building."