A WELL-used village community centre may be forced to close after losing a grant from Darlington Borough Council.

At a meeting on Wednesday night, the chairman of Middleton St George Community Association, Mike Latter, told the management committee that unless an increase of about £2 per elector was made to the community charge, the centre would have to close and be boarded up.

Until this year, the association received a grant of £4,500 from the borough council's education department, but this is to be withdrawn next year.

Mr Latter said the community centre was heavily used by many village groups, but none of the groups could afford to pay enough to cover the annual running expenses of about £8,000.

He said: "If the present users were to bear the costs of running the centre, the association would need to charge every user up to £40 per session and the centre would need to be let every day of the week for 50 weeks each year."

He told the meeting that even demolishing the centre would cost more than £100,000 and the association only had about £5,000 in its account.

The only solution seemed to be to ask both Low Dinsdale Parish Council, in whose parish the centre stands, and Middleton St George Parish Council, which represents most of the village, to increase the parish precept in next year's community charge.

Borough Coun Doris Jones, who represents Middleton St George, said the withdrawing of grants, which also affects places such as Neasham and Heighington, was the final nail in the coffin for villages.

She said: "It's pretty appalling that the rural areas, and it is only the rural areas, have had their grants cut off by the education department.

"The parishes supported the council wholeheartedly when it wanted to leave Durham and become a unitary authority, on the understanding that we would be better taken care of. But now they are taking this away from us."

She added: "We have an obligation to these people to provide somewhere for them to go.

"Elderly people can't get on a bus and go into Darlington at night to play whist or whatever, but they can walk down the road to the village hall and back with a friend in safety.

"The sad thing is village halls are the lifeblood of villages, and for a lot of young and old people it is the only place they have to go to socialise. They can't afford to pay more than they already are for these facilities."

A spokeswoman for the council said the grants were still available, but not as a subsidy for anything other than youth groups.

She added: "The change to the way youth grants are administered does not mean that money is not available for youth projects. Organisations can still apply for the money, as long as it is used to provide and promote activities at their centre which meet identified needs."

l Neasham letter of protest, page 8