A MEMORIAL commemorating men who died in a town's worst colliery disaster is being moved to safeguard its future.

Willington Community Partnership became concerned about the condition of a plaque left to deteriorate in a boarded up leisure centre.

Marking the deaths of 20 miners on April 14, 1896, the plaque was given a prominent place on a wall in the town's former Miners' Welfare Hall, later used as part of the Spectrum Leisure Centre.

But is has been hidden from view for the past two years since the building was shut down under council leisure cuts.

After talks this week, Wear Valley District Council has agreed in principle to move it to the partnership's base in the Community Resource Centre, in Willington High Street.

Engineers are working out costs and assessing the monument's condition before its final destination is decided.

Partnership chairman Brian Myers said: "Both this and future generations cannot be allowed to forget the sacrifices of life and limb that local men and boys made in the quest for coal, and a prominently placed, well maintained monument will do exactly that."