Village halls across the North-East face extinction unless they receive urgent financial help, as a result of a Government funding shake-up.

A change in the way the Learning and Skills Council allocates funding for adult education, due to take effect in March, means that many halls offering courses in the heart of communities will fail to qualify.

Those most likely to suffer run classes such as mat making and astronomy in small, isolated communities, including Edmundbuyers, Plaws-worth and Kimblesworth, Dipton, Ebchester and Wald-ridge Fell, County Durham.

While 90 village halls in the county will continue to be supported under the new regulations, 72 will not.

For many, an additional source of income is the Lottery-financed Community Fund, which gives grants for things like disabled facilities.

But due to falling Lottery ticket sales, these have been reduced by an estimated £17m nationally in 2000-2001.

It had been hoped that a review by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would lead to a dedicated Government fund being set up to offer village halls a lifeline.

However, according to reports, Alun Michael, the Minister for Rural Affairs, has rejected the idea.

Shona Percival, secretary of Frosterley Village Hall, which hosts the Women's Institute, a youth club, bingo, snooker, carpet bowls, meetings and coffee mornings, said: "We have insurance of about £1,600 a year, and because we are not getting a grant, we are losing nearly £3,000.

"We are going to have to put hire charges and membership charges up and do more fund- raising activities to keep our heads above water.

"We have decided to put a letter out to tell people how bad the situation is.

"Village halls are hard done by. It's hard to get money for anything."

Durham county councillor John Shuttleworth, who oversees 12 village halls in the Weardale area, said: "A lot of village halls are shutting and a lot run from hand-to-mouth.

"The main running costs of a village hall, such as insurance, are well over the £500 mark.

"Hunstanworth Village Hall is just a tin building, but they produce a newsletter and have things like a ladies' club.

"They only get about £700 a year and if they don't get that, they will be in trouble.

"Alun Michael should go back and think again and consult people involved in rural communities, or there will be no village halls," he warned.

Meanwhile, Durham County Council is setting aside up to £100,000 emergency funding.

David Emmerson, the council's education and community manager, said: "We are working with those organisations that don't fall within the adult learning funding formula, and they will be supported by advice from officers and members and direct grants.