LOTTERY bosses have praised a newly-built community centre in a County Durham town.
The Jubilee Fields Community Centre, in Shildon, has been a made a flagship example of how a community has turned itself around with the aid of a lottery grant.
This week Lady Diana Brittan, chairwoman of the National Lottery Community Fund visited the centre to see for herself how lottery money was being spent in small communities.
She said: "It has taken guts to achieve this and I wanted to see first hand how successful it is.
"This visit has taught me a lot about this community and how they have fought to build a community centre that is well used by the community.''
The Jubilee Fields Community Association campaigned for years to build a community centre and a £450,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund helped make their dream a reality.
Since the £600,000 centre opened two years ago it has become a thriving enterprise run by volunteers and is at the heart of community life on the estate.
It holds adult learning courses, mother and toddler groups and youth clubs and a lunch club, to name a few of the opportunities it offers.
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