RED-FACED health bosses have suspended plans to shut a community hospital after it emerged that they might not own the building.

County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is considering closing South Moor Community Hospital, near Stanley, and selling off the land for housing.

But residents fighting to save the facility believe the NHS does not own the site, as it was left to the community by the miners who built it.

Campaigner Garry Reed said: "The trust claims the land is theirs, but have not got the deeds to the land.

"They have tried to close this site four times and have always failed in the past."

The protestors said there was also a covenant on the deeds that stated the site could only be used for a hospital and that the land cannot be sold for profit or gain.

The trust has said it is confident that it does own the building but, privately, officials have admitted they cannot find the deeds to the land.

The issue of ownership emerged at a meeting in Craghead, near Stanley, about a multi-purpose health centre planned for Stanley town centre.

Residents are being consulted about plans to close the South Moor facility and transfer services to the new centre.

In 1992, plans to close the facility were shelved after a public protest led by the late former Durham county councillor, Len James.

Holmside and South Moor Miners' Welfare Fund Hospital opened in 1927. It cost £29,000 and was built on land gifted by the South Moor Coal Company.

Originally, the land and building was left in trust to the people of the Stanley area. It was incorporated into the NHS in 1948 but it remains unclear whether the deeds to the land were also passed on.

An spokesman for the acute hospitals NHS trust said: "The possibility of a restrictive covenant placed on the South Moor Community Hospital site has been raised with the trust - we are currently looking into this.

"The most important consideration of the ongoing consultation process is to make sure that the people of Stanley receive 21st Century care in 21st Century facilities."