NORTH-EAST youngsters who belong to the country's best sports acrobatics club are to get a £426,949 new home.

Deerness Gym Club, at Ushaw Moor near Durham City, has produced several gymnasts who have enjoyed extensive international competition success since it was formed in 1988.

The club has outgrown its base at the nearby Deerness Valley Comprehensive School but is now set to be given new facilities in the Deerness Leisure Centre.

The centre's main hall will be turned into a high performance gym and full-time training base for the club.

Sport England has announced that the project, which will form part of the English Institute of Sport network of elite training facilities, is getting £327,000 of lottery money. British Gymnastics, which backs the project, says Deerness is the country's "number one club" for producing high-achieving sports acrobats.

Fifteen sports acrobats are members of the club. Gymnasts in the world class development programme will have priority use of the new facilities.

There are only three other high performance centres in the country catering for tumbling and acrobatics at this level.

Work at the centre, run by Durham City Council, is expected to start site in January.

City councillor Dorothy Carruthers, responsible for leisure, said: "To have one of our leisure centres selected as a high performance gymnastics centre is a great honour.

"Deerness Gym Club was already producing the most medals in the country and who knows what talent is waiting to be discovered now that we can accommodate so many young people."

She added that the centre's existing facilities would still be available and members of the centre's Future Fitness programme would get a new gym.