A BID to restore a city's ice rink could take a step forward next month.

Five years after the closure of the Riverside Rink in Durham, now converted into a ten-pin bowling alley and health club, ice hockey and figure skating enthusiasts still yearn for a replacement.

Durham City Council has said it does not have the resources to meet the outlay and running costs, but would be "sympathetic" to a proposal from an outside body.

The arrival, albeit temporarily, of an ice pad as part of Christmas festivities in nearby Spennymoor next month has given campaigners a chance to highlight their cause.

Sedgefield Borough Council and Spennymoor Town Council have joined forces with local businesses to mount a small outdoor rink, surrounded by market stalls, in a "Weihnachtsmarkt", between December 8 and January 6.

Richard Endean, who organised a recent meeting to maintain support for "Keep Durham on Ice", said it was an opportunity to raise the profile of the campaign.

He said: "Although temporary, this will be the first ice rink in the county since 1996, and it's an ideal platform to argue our case for a permanent facility in the area, and to raise some much-needed publicity."

Mr Endean said the campaign group hoped to hire the rink for an evening session to emphasise enthusiasm for ice sports in Durham.

He said the failure of the Newcastle Jesters, the latest successors to the old Durham Wasps club, underlined that the sport should have remained in the city.

The Jesters face possible winding up after being thrown out of the Ice Hockey Superleague for failing to pay players outstanding wages, leaving Whitley Bay, in the English National League, as the region's leading club.

Mr Endean said: "Ice hockey never took off in Newcastle because it's simply not a hockey town in the same way that Durham was.

"The way the Newcastle franchise was set up did not help, alienating fans in both Durham and Whitley Bay.

"Durham has a history in the sport going back to the 1940s and has proved it can work, regularly achieving crowds of 3,000-plus in their heyday and producing some of the country's most talent ice hockey players and skaters over the years.

"The sport belongs in this city."

Campaign members hope to hire the Spennymoor rink on the evening of Thursday, December 13