DURHAM'S development plans remain on target, despite a loss of £938,000 in the financial year to the end of last September.

Club officials are confident of a return to profit in 2013, when they stage an Ashes Test, and the financial situation is healthier than at most other counties.

Cardiff controversially beat Durham to an Ashes Test in 2009 but the Swalec Stadium's future as a Test venue is under scrutiny after the ECB announced yesterday it had lost the right to host one of next year's three Tests against West Indies.

The match has been put back out to tender, and will be open to bids from the other eight Test-playing venues.

Glamorgan suffered cashflow problems in the wake of this year's disastrous first Test against Sri Lanka. They advised the ECB they would be late in paying the staging fee of £2.5m, and are understood to have made a loss in the region of £1.5m.

Durham's annual report, released yesterday, spoke of a "planned operating loss" and it was stated that the figure was in line with the club's five-year development plan. Further losses are expected in 2011 and 2012, before a return to profit in 2013.

The annual turnover was £5.5m and the club saw an improvement in its core commercial revenues, along with a reduction in costs.

There was a 17 per cent rise of £240,000 in corporate and sponsorship revenues, plus an encouraging increase in the sale of annual memberships.

Plans to build a 149-bedroom hotel overlooking the River Wear are going ahead as part of the development of the club's conferencing and leisure facilities and it is hoped this will be completed by 2013.

Chief executive David Harker said: "These results are in line with our long-term financial planning and compare favourably to other Test match venues which do not host Test cricket on an annual basis.

"The Emirates Durham ICG is now an established and highly popular venue for international cricket and our ambition is to ensure that Test match cricket remains a permanent fixture.

"However, it is essential that we are not solely reliant on international cricket revenues."

Harker added that a Test had been promised for 2016, while the club is negotiating with the ECB to secure a further package of international matches.

"Although self sufficiency attained through the development of the venue is key to long-term success, international cricket will of course remain an important element of our operation," he said.