A golf club has tabled plans for a two-storey driving range costing half a million pounds.

Roseberry Grange Golf Club, at Grange Villa near Chester-le-Street, made the announcement after a string of successes this year.

In April it was designated the first national centre for disability in the country and it recently introduced a popular mobile coaching scheme for schoolchildren in the North-East.

The latest plans will see the 17-bay driving range knocked down and replaced by a two-storey building with 34 bays, costing about £500,000.

The ground floor will be used by youngsters from the Roseberry Grange Golf Academy -a training school for budding golfing stars - while the top floor will be open to the public and professionals.

Alan Hartley, Roseberry's golf professional, says the club is able to provide the region's children with an educational golfing experience.

He said: "People don't really associate golf with the North-East, but the response we have had from the region's children has been incredible.

"Whenever we take our mobile coaching scheme to the special schools, the children get tremendously excited.

"Most special schools don't have the facilities for something like golf. They have swimming, football and basketball, but we give them the chance to try something different."

"Golf often seems to have an almost therapeutic effect on youngsters with learning difficulties."

He said: "Teachers have even told me that they can get more out of golf, like hand-eye co-ordination, than they can by sitting in a classroom learning maths."

It's hoped that the new facilities will help more youngsters of all abilities to pick up the game, even if it is at an amateur level.

Mr Hartley added: "This new driving range is tied in with our new status as national centre for disability.

"It will mean we can coach more children, both from our academy and from local special schools."

Roseberry has also introduced two new coaching levels, called Birdie and Eagle, to help children with disabilities learn the game. It's hoped that the club's pilot scheme will be adopted nationally by the Golf Foundation - the national body that provides the backbone for junior golf.