OPPOSITION councillors are "outraged" at plans to sell off land in surrounding villages to help pay for a city's swimming baths.

The Labour group on Durham City Council is angry at proposals put forward by the ruling Liberal Democrats in a five-year plan revealed last week.

Particular concern has been raised over the proposed sale of dozens of plots of land in some of the villages on the periphery of the city area, which the council hopes will raise up to £17m.

Other prime sites in the city centre will also be sold, with some of the overall total raised going to fund the construction of a pool complex, on land alongside Durham Sixth Form College, in Freeman's Place.

The £5.8m eight-lane 25m pool will replace the ageing baths in Old Elvet, which has been high on the city agenda for the past 20 years.

Some of the land sales will be to developers and housing associations to help meet a feared housing shortage in the council area.

Council leader Fraser Reynolds described it as a "bold, imaginative and confident strategy" to deliver a vision for Durham.

But opposition Labour group members have described the land sale as "asset-stripping gone mad".

Councillor Mike Syer's Cassop-cum-Quarrington ward will see a number of land sales, particularly in his home village of Bowburn.

He said: "We're outraged at the prospect of all these sites being sold off in Bowburn and the other villages to pay for their showpiece baths project in the city centre.

"Local reaction has been similar so far, when people realise what they're planning."

Coun Syer said far from meeting the city's housing crisis, it will exacerbate it, in some areas, where former council housing is being demolished.

"There's four sites in Bowburn itself, with 56 houses and bungalows on one of them. The money raised from these sell-offs should be re-invested in the villages themselves and not siphoned off to fund this fancy project," he said.

Members of the city council cabinet will discuss the plan tonight.