KEYS that will unlock a 50-year-old dream have been presented to residents on a Shildon estate.

Since their homes were built in the 1950s, people living on the Jubilee Estate have wanted their own community centre.

Six years ago, campaigners founded a committee which pushed forward with a tireless fundraising drive to raise £600,000.

Now the building has been constructed on the site of the former Jubilee Workingmen's Club, the place where the project was launched.

Treasurer of the Jubilee Fields Community Association, Elizabeth Carr, said: "We have been campaigning for this since 1995, when a public meeting was held in the old Jubilee Club. This is the fulfilment of a dream. It has been achieved by sheer hard work and determination by a committed group of people in the community.

"If it hadn't been for their commitment, this wouldn't have happened. They were just determined they were going to have a building on this estate.

"To us it is the end of one dream and the beginning of another.''

Mrs Carr said the centre will be available to users from April.

As the decorators moved out on Friday last week, the keys were presented to the committee.

Furniture and equipment is being moved in and there will be an opening ceremony in June. The centre will also have a memorial plaque dedicated to four members of a family killed in a house fire on the estate.

Sisters Joanne and Marie Humphrey, who lost their mother and three children in the blaze, have given approximately £800 to be spent on play equipment for a creche at the centre.

The money came from a fund set up after the tragedy.

The committee secured a National Lottery grant of £450,000, and the rest of the money was raised through fundraising and donations.

Mrs Carr said: "We are so proud of this building. It was built by the community, is owned by the community and it is run by the community.