Councillors yesterday approved plans to allow the derelict site of one of the best known social clubs in the North-East to be used for a housing development. Gavin Havery examines the continuing decline of the workingmen’s club.

DURING the miners’ strike of the mid-Eighties, the Vane Tempest Social Welfare Centre in Seaham, County Durham, was a haven for pit men who were involved in the dispute that defined the decade.

It served as a soup kitchen for hungry families, a meeting place for miners and was the social hub of the community with a range of entertainment provided for its members.

Fast forward to 2011, and the site stands empty with building demolished and the rubble cleared to make way for a housing estate, which was given the go ahead yesterday.

There has been a steady decline in social clubs and club membership since the heyday of the Sixties and Seventies, mirroring the decimation of the heavy industry on which the region’s economy was built.

Former miner Ray Jordan, who is a member of Seaham Town Council, was the treasurer of the National Union of Miners and remembers holding meetings at Vane Tempest club during the dark days of the industrial action.

Councillor Jordan said: “They closed the pits and that had an effect on the clubs because a lot of miners went there with their work mates.

“It was a social place and you went there to meet people.

It’s a shame that has gone.”

Mick McGlasham, general secretary of the Club and Institute Union, said the future does not bode well for the clubs in the former mining communities of County Durham.

He said: “There has been a significant fall in this part of the country. They are slowly, but surely, declining “It is very, very sad because they are community orientated and people can go there to discuss their everyday problems.

“They are also very supportive of charity, a place where you can get all sorts of sporting activities under one roof.”

Mr McGlasham, 61, who is from Peterlee, blames the demise of workingmen’s clubs on a range of other factors, as well as the loss of industry.

They are unable to compete with the relatively cheap alcohol on sale in supermarkets and members have been deterred because of the smoking ban, while the licensing act is making it harder to organise events.

He said: “People are going to the supermarkets and getting two bottles of spirits for £16 and we just cannot compete with that sort of price.

“So people are staying at home with cheap booze where they can smoke.

“There is a better environment in the club since the smoking ban, but people are driven out on to the streets and that causes problems for those who live nearby.”

Mr McGlasham is in talks with a parliamentary committee, which includes MPs from the region, to work out how to safeguard the social clubs for future generations.

He hopes the coalition Government will take on the supermarkets over cheap drink and allow clubs to have smoking rooms without staff that their members can sit in to enjoy a cigarette.

He said: “We are a responsible organisation and don’t think staff should be exposed to smoke, but there is no reason we could not have room where members can go to if they want to smoke.

“We are also asking to look at the cheap booze in supermarkets because that has got a lot to do with the binge drinking culture that exists today.

“There is not a problem with binge drinking in our clubs because they are self regulating and we have got good committee people who deal with anyone who steps out of line.”

In the Durham area, the number of social clubs has fallen from almost 400 to slightly more than 200 in the past 40 years, but they are starting to disappear more rapidly.

It is now too late for the Vane Tempest club and that part of the region’s history and heritage is lost forever.

Durham County Council’s planning committee unanimously agreed to approve Miller Homes’ planning application to create more than 40 houses and nine two bedroom apartments on the site.

Planning officer Allan Simpson said: “Overall, it is considered that the proposal is acceptable in planning terms and would contribute toward the ongoing regeneration of Seaham.”

Mr McGlasham believes clubs no longer enjoy the support of brewers and banks and it is up to individual clubs to come up with innovative ways to ensure they survive.

He said: “We need to make the clubs more attractive to people. Food is very popular these days and that could be a way to try to get people in.

“I invite clubs members to write to me with their suggestions and everyone will be considered and replied to.

“When a club goes in a community, it never comes back.”