WORKINGMEN'S clubs from County Durham have agreed to the sale of the brewery that has supplied them for more than 80-years.

Delegates from 253 clubs voted in favour of the recommendation by the Federation Brewery board to accept a buy-out offer from Scottish Courage, parent company of Scottish and Newcastle Breweries.

It will provide a windfall for many of the clubs, which collectively own the Federation Brewery, and in some cases a lifeline against mounting debts.

The Federation brewery site, near the MetroCentre at Gateshead, has already been sold to the Edinburgh-based brewer in a £7.2m deal.

The deal will see production of Newcastle Brown Ale transferred from the Tyne Brewery in Newcastle to the Federation plant by early next year.

Saturday's vote sealed the fate of the co-operative brewery's beers, including LCL Pils and Fed Special, familiar in club bars across the region.

Under a £16.2m deal, Scottish Courage also acquires Federation's distribution assets, tied estate and wholesale business.

A further £4.4m worth of debts will also be wiped out under the agreement, and the clubs are expected to benefit from the deal with a share of an £8m pay-out.

But the decision marking the end of the era for the Federation was still a sad one for many of those at the meeting.

Chairman John Coppinger was emotional as he addressed delegates, putting forward the board's recommendation.

Club and Institute Union general secretary Kevin Smyth said: "It's a sad day for all of us who believe in the ideal of the club movement. Maybe there's no longer the sense of loyalty to the community there used to be.

"That's the reason the Fed started, to treat clubs better. But, there was no real option for the Fed themselves, they had high debt and the pension scheme was in a mess."

Mr Smyth said the Federation was the last surviving and oldest of the breweries set up by workingmen's clubs.

Saturday's decision is expected to be rubber-stamped at a meeting of shareholder clubs next month.

The Federation Brewery was founded in 1919. It grew out of a spirit of enterprise generated in the post First World War period when a group of North-East working men's clubs formed an independent co-operative to build their own brewery.

The clubs created the brewery and, in turn, the brewery soon grew strong enough to breath new life into the clubs.