A YOUTH club leader has handed police a list of names of youths she says are dealing drugs in the grounds of a village community centre.

Sania Dockray, who runs a youth club at Hurworth Grange on Friday evenings, said she was threatened by a teenager brandishing a pitch-fork last Friday when she asked youths hanging around to move.

Ms Dockray says older teenagers are taking and selling drugs, drinking alcohol and smoking in the community centre grounds at weekends.

She had asked the group to move because they were intimidating youngsters who were queuing to get into the youth club.

"That was a risk to my members - I would not have got involved otherwise," she said. "Then one of them just started mouthing off."

She said the teenager swore at her and threatened her, brandishing the pitch-fork.

Ms Dockray confiscated the pitch-fork and called the police.

She said that some of the youth club members were so frightened that she and another volunteer had walked them home.

She added that although police community support officer John Angus was helpful and active, the village needed an increased police presence.

She also appealed for more volunteers for the youth club.

She said the youth club, which opened in February, already had 112 members, and had been opened to give youngsters something to do to keep them out of trouble.

Community Inspector Sue Collingwood, of Durham police, said the matter was under investigation.

"There are an awful lot of kids in that area that are well-behaved and we don't want to tar them all with the same brush," she said.