A COUNCIL leisure centre could be handed over to a basketball club who would run it as a community facility.

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

The Spectrum managing trustees agreed to the handover on Monday night, clearing the way for council officers to continue talks with the club and the Charity Commission.

The club would set up a company to manage the centre from April 1, with its directors becoming trustees of the Spectrum Trust.

It hopes to develop the centre's Arrivals 1 building into a basketball centre, keeping it open for public use.

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

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

Budget cuts have already cost the centre a number of facilities, such as its ski slope and fitness room, as well as the welfare hall.

David Kingston, the newly-elected chairman of the Spectrum managing trustees, said: "This is a really exciting opportunity for the Spectrum and for 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 Spectrum could be under threat, but with the financial challenges the council is constantly facing, this must lift pressure."

Max Coleby, the council's acting director of community services, told 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 facilities at the Spectrum site."