A scout group is teaming up with organisers of a popular six-a-side youngsters' soccer league to kick off a £500,000 campaign for better facilities.

And they hope their fundraising efforts will ensure the expansion of the league which already has nearly 200 young players.

Boys and girls aged from five to 14 congregate on Shildon Scout Field, in West Road, every Saturday morning to play in the Doug Grant Six-a-Side League, the idea of one of the town's top amateur footballers who is also a qualified FA coach.

Administered by parents and volunteers, the league has even been credited with improving relations between local schools, because it brings together children from different areas before they reach secondary age.

The field itself was bought in 1955 for the 1st Shildon Baden Powell Scout Group and is now run by a registered charity known as the Scout Field.

Shildon United Football Club built the current facilities in 1975 and used them until last year.

The six-a-side league has grown steadily since Doug Grant started it off in the spring of 1995 and is set to expand. Raising the age limit to 16 will allow more teams to take part.

But while the concept has gone from strength to strength the off-field facilities are not up to standard.

A new steering group made up of charity trustees, Shildon United secretary Mike Armitage and beat bobby PC Alan Craig is examining funding options and plans to launch a feasibility study which itself could cost several thousand pounds.

Steering group chairman David Dent, whose nine-year-old daughter Charlotte plays in the league, said: "We feel we've got something that's very popular and pretty unique. The kids are flocking to the games, but the facilities are totally inadequate for scout or sport purposes.

"If our appeal is successful, the future changing rooms will hopefully be big enough to function also as a canteen, and even an indoor sports facilities."