PLANS for a community building for two Teesdale villages have been drawn up.

The proposed building will replace two dilapidated wooden huts and offer a new facility for people in Etherley and Toft Hill.

Leading the project is Etherley and District Welfare Association, which runs the site of the village cricket club, a football pitch and tennis courts.

The association used money from the sale of a former literary institute to commission the Wilkinson Hindle Halsall Lloyd Partnership, a firm of architects, to find out what villagers want and suggest appropriate designs for a building.

Chris Fowler, a trustee of the association, hopes villagers will get behind the ambitious scheme to ensure that the centre is well used.

He said: "The two wooden cricket club huts, a pavilion and tea hut, desperately need replacing because they are run-down and have been vandalised so cannot be insured.

"The new building will offer those facilities for the cricket club, but for the vast majority of the time it will be available for people using the football pitch or tennis courts, or as a meeting place for whichever groups want to use it.

"The costs looks to be around £300,000, so grants will have to be applied for and funds raised."

Fiona Brettwood, who is a partner in the architects firm, said: "The people that responded to the questionnaires we sent out have helped us determine what is needed in the area.

"We don't want to compete with the existing community centre further up the village, but because that is up a steep hill on the opposite side of the A68, some people, particularly older residents, do not always access it.

"The building will include a kitchen, changing rooms, disabled toilets and a main room for other activities people in the village want.

"There have been the suggestions that a mother and toddlers' group or carpet bowls could be held in the central room. We want people to comment on the plans and are sure that the suggestions could have a really positive impact on the community."

Villagers have until the end of this week to view the plans, which are on display in the cricket club, and make comments before work starts on raising funds to pay for the project.