SKI club members have pulled out of talks with council bosses over taking on a loss-making artificial slope.

The 70-metre plastic run in Willington, County Durham, is due to shut as part of £300,000 cutbacks ordered by Wear Valley District Council last month at the 16-year-old Spectrum Leisure Complex.

Skiers and young snowboarders were among two dozen protestors who picketed guests arriving at the complex for Wear Valley District Council's Civic Ball on Friday night.

However, Weardale Ski Club, which has more than 400 members in the North-East, has told the council it cannot run the slope.

Chairman Mike Leatherland contacted committee members in response to a letter from the council's leisure and marketing department.

He said yesterday: "We decided it is too big a project for an amateur club to take on.

"It was running at a big loss and it was costing the council a lot of money. We could never afford to put ourselves in that position.

"It would have meant us becoming a commercial organisation and we are not really into that.

"Either that or we would have had to rely on volunteers and people just do not have the time.

"It is a great shame to see the ski slope shut, but it was mainly a training slope and not suitable for experienced skiers.