A FORMER workingmen's club is to be turned into a training centre after its new owners cleared the final bureaucratic hurdle.

S&D Training has been granted planning permission to convert the former Jubilee Fields Workingmen's Club, Shildon, County Durham, which closed three years ago. The firm is leaving its premises in Burke Street, which are to be turned into a GP's surgery.

Sedgefield Borough Council planning officer Gillian Eglintine granted the plans as part of her delegated powers.

Other improvements on the estate includes the building of a community centre.