A COUNCIL leisure centre could be handed over to a basketball club.

Wear Valley Basketball Club wants to take over the 20-year-old Spectrum Leisure Centre in Willington, where services have been cut over recent years.

The Spectrum Managing Trustees agreed to the handover on Monday, clearing the way for district council officers to continue talks with the club and the Charity Commission.

The club wants set up a new company, limited by guarantee, to manage the centre from April 1, with its directors becoming trustees of the Spectrum Trust.

The club wants to develop the centre's Arrivals 1 building into a major basketball centre, keeping it open for public use.

Long-term plans are understood to include reopening Arrivals 2, the former Brancepeth Miners' Welfare Hall, which was built in 1927 with money gifted from pitmen's wages.

Although the Spectrum is under no direct threat of closure, the number of people using it has fallen over recent years. Opening hours have been reduced and the council has admitted facing increased pressure to cut spending.

Budget cuts have already led to the closure of the centre's ski slope, fitness room and the welfare hall.

David Kingston, newly-elected chairman of the Spectrum managing trustees, said: "This is a really exciting opportunity for the Spectrum and Willington.

"It offers a chance to develop the centre and there are long-term plans which might even see the old Miner's Welfare Hall, which the community bought in the first place, being brought back into use.

"We can't say for sure that the centre could be under threat but with the financial challenges the council is facing, this must lift pressure from centres at Bishop Auckland and Crook."

Max Coleby, the council's acting director of community services, told the trustees: "There are no guarantees arising from this proposal but, given the financial situation of the council, the proposals do offer a real prospect for securing the continued availability to the community of the Spectrum site."