COUNCILLORS voted last night to cut subsidies to an under-used leisure centre so they can save £300,000 a year.

The reduction in funding for the Spectrum Leisure Complex, in Willington, will mean closing its loss-making 70-metre ski-slope and a former miners welfare hall, known as Arrivals One.

Members of Wear Valley District Council rejected pleas from users of the 16-year-old centre, including 700 skiers and schools and colleges around the North-East.

They voted 23-0, with two abstentions, to accept a recommendation from the council's policy and finance and leisure committees earlier in the day.

Apart from scattered community projects, the council will concentrate its leisure spending on centres in Bishop Auckland and Crook, which both have bigger catchment areas than Willington.

It is earmarking £52,000 to fund staff redundancies, although many of the Spectrum's 25 workers could be offered other jobs.

The council spends £4.21 subsidising each visit to the centre. Keeping services at the present level would cost each Wear Valley council taxpayer an extra £16.50 a year.

Council leader Olive Brown proposed the cuts, which were seconded by Independent Vere Shuttleworth.

She said: "We are not afraid of taking difficult decisions. We are custodians of the public purse and we have to act sensibly."

Councillor Shuttleworth hailed the vote as a "brave decision".

Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Chris Foote Wood said that Arrivals One should be offered to the Willington community after it closed.