A £50,000 expansion at a leisure complex has opened in an attempt to improve the fitness of people in an area recently named as the UK's heart attack blackspot.

Health groups teamed up with Wear Valley District Council to boost fitness facilities at Woodhouse Close Leisure Centre, in Bishop Auckland.

The move was in response to research for the County Durham Health Improvement Programme that showed people in Wear Valley are 47 per cent more likely to have a heart attack than the national average.

The council and health care providers Durham Dales Primary Care Trust and South Durham NHS Trust secured a grant from the Government's Neighbourhood Renewal fund to convert a former squash court at the complex into a work-out room.

Almost 70 square metres of space have been added at the centre, which includes 12 new cardio-vascular machines and four items of resistance equipment.

The extension will be used predominantly by patients whose doctors feel they are at risk of heart disease or are recovering from heart attacks - that is about 3,500 people in the Wear Valley.

Barry Stainthorpe, a former cardiac nurse, is a member of Bishop Auckland Cardiac Support Group, which was formed in 1993 to support heart attack victims and to raise money for coronary care at the town's general hospital.

He said: "Special facilities like this are the ideal way to encourage those most at risk of heart disease to tackle the problem. It offers a social environment and that encourages users to come back and keep fit."

At the official opening yesterday, Councillor John Lethbridge, chairman of the council's community services committee, said: "It is important that several groups have worked together to develop this facility, as we want the community to be able to access such equipment for the good of their health."

Anne Beeton, chairwoman of the Durham Dales Primary Care Trust, said: "This is an important part of the services provided for the community to prevent heart attacks and rehabilitate.

"Heart disease has a devastating effect on too many local people and families, and exercise is a key tool to reduce that.