Call for council leader to resign over centre closure

The Shildon Centre, in Main Street, Shildon, faces closure after failing to obtain vital lottery funding necessary to secure its future.

Crisis talks are being held between the county council and a new volunteer group in an attempt to keep the building open beyond next Thursday.

But independent Shildon Town Councillor, Stuart Bird, said the facility was more than just a building.

"The leader of Durham County Council, Albert Nugent, told the people of Shildon that if the day ever came when the centre has to close then that is when he can be accused of failing to keep his promise," he said.

"Well I say that day has come and it is time for him to fall on his sword and resign.

"Fourteen community groups which used the service have been displaced and the centre's staff have been issued their redundancy notices.

"The service has had the heart ripped out of it and the service is lost - the building is just a shell."

The comments came at a meeting of Shildon Town Council earlier this week, but were echoed following a meeting of the Shildon Centre's management committee on Tuesday night, when the committee was dissolved.

Centre manager Christine Wood said: "It's a little confusing that we were based in the Shildon Centre, but at the end of the day the Shildon Centre building was exactly that, just a building.

"We decided we will dissolve Shildon Centre Ltd, which is the registered charity that delivered the services in the centre and at venues across the town.

"The company is still solvent - we just did not manage to get the full funding we needed and we do not want to be trustees of a wounded animal."

The centre, set up in 1985 in a former police station, providing accommodation for a community transport scheme, a drop-in cafe, along with advocacy, administration and counselling services.

Coun Nugent was unavailable for comment, but recently said he would do all he could to ensure the centre's survival.