A CENTRE dedicated to adult and community learning is to open in Darlington.

The borough council announced plans last night to build the centre on the site of the proposed Skerne Park Primary School.

The £430,000 project will be funded by a £385,000 grant from the Learning and Skills Council with Darlington Borough Council providing the remaining money.

The centre will have three classrooms and a reception area. It will also house a UK online centre.

It will offer facilities to anyone over 16 and will be accessible to people from all areas of the community who want to continue learning.

Stephen Harker, the council's cabinet member for education, said: "This new facility will help to create an extended school as the new Skerne Park Primary School will also include a nursery unit.

"It will provide learning opportunities for people from this community throughout their lives."

Last month, the Government announced a £132m cash boost to improve decaying school buildings in the region, including Skerne Park.

The village of Middleton St George, near Darlington, also benefited from the grant hand-out, with £2.5m allocated towards a 315-place primary school.

Officials are pledging £2.9m to spend on the 420-place Skerne Park school, which is to be built on the site of the present infant school building.

A council spokesman said no decision had been made on the future of the junior school site in Ribble Drive.

Darlington Borough Council is allocating £700,000 to the project.

It is hoped that the building, as well as the adult and learning centre, will be open by September 2005.

The council's lifelong learning committee devised proposals for the centre as part of the draft adult learning plan for 2003-4.

Members aim to give families, older, deprived and black and minority ethnic groups more opportunities.

Initiatives supported by the committee include devising a social history of Skerne Park with contributions from all age groups.

The record will show what kind of people lived on the estate, the jobs they did and the role of elderly people in the community.