THE future of a community centre still hangs in the balance after a parish council failed to make a decision on whether to give it essential funding.

Middleton St George community centre is facing a cash crisis after Darlington Borough Council decided to withdraw its annual funding of all village halls.

Lower Dinsdale Parish Council has decided to raise its community charge to help keep the centre open but earlier this week Middleton St George councillors failed to decide whether it too would help.

A spokesman for the parish council said: "No decision has been made. The council has asked the community association for more information about what is needed."

The community association, which runs the centre, is asking the Middleton St George Parish Council to raise its community charge to help with funding.

Association chairman Councillor Mike Latter said the overall increase in community charge would be about £4 a year per resident.

He said: "The council set their precept in January which means they only have two more meetings before a decision has to be made.

"We are looking for other money but most funds, like the Lottery's Community Fund, take a long time to process applications and it would take a month just to put a bid together. Putting a bid in is no guarantee we would be successful."

The association needs to raise about £7,000 a year to keep the centre running and it raises just £2,000 from the hundreds who use its facilities.

Mr Latter said: "Sadly, it's not just a case of increasing how much our users pay because it would then become too expensive and we would lose out if they stopped coming.

"What we need is a long-term guarantee of funding and we think the parish council is the best bet.

"We are only asking for a small amount from each person in the village and everyone would miss the centre if it closed."

Mr Latter fears that if the centre is closed it will be vandalised and become an eyesore.

He said: "The other alternative is to get a developer if the building was demolished but I think the plot is too small and we don't really want more houses in the village anyway.

"The only solution is to raise this money and I hope the parish council will make its decision before it is too late.