A VISITOR centre which opened 18 months ago has been forced to close through lack of funds.

The £500,000 Meet the Middletons centre in Middleton-in-Teesdale is to close temporarily after it failed to attract enough visitors.

The centre, which opened in May 2004, had a visitor target of 18,000 a year by 2007, but last year only attracted 2,500 visitors.

The full-time manager of the centre and five part-time staff are being made redundant.

Staff at Middleton Plus, the community development trust which runs the centre, are now working to secure funding to re-open the centre in time for the summer tourist season.

Ian Tallentire, the chairman of Middleton Plus, said: "It's very sad.

"There are a few irons in the fire and we're hoping they will come to fruition.

"We haven't got to a number of targets and obviously that leads to a funding gap.

"We're working very hard to meet those targets and the aim is to re-open very soon."

Meet the Middletons tells the story of the dale's heritage through the eyes of a fictional 19th Century family.

A review of the centre's operation was carried out in the autumn and experts were brought in to conduct a marketing report.

Suggested improvements include better interpretation for all ages with not too much text, more Victorian artefacts and more structure to the way the Middleton family story is told.

Funding is also being sought to allow the improvements to take place.

Mr Tallentire said: "It was never going to be easy.

"Back in 2003 we prepared our best estimate of a business plan which made various assumptions about the numbers of visitors Meet the Middletons would attract - with hindsight, that was over-optimistic.

"It was never the expectation that Meet the Middletons would be self-financing after such a short period of operation - most start-up businesses do not turn a profit in their first few years.

"However, because of the lower visitor numbers than we hoped for, we are not in a strong position to attract further investment just at the moment."

The opening of the centre had been delayed for nearly two years after a potential backer dropped out.

Meet the Middletons will be open from 11am to 5pm until January 31, except Tuesdays.

For more information call (01833) 640333.