INSPECTORS have given the thumbs-up to leisure services in Derwentside.

The Derwentside District Council service is good, with promising prospects for improvement, according to a report from the Audit Commission out today.

In a previous report, published in September 2001, the service was given a one-star rating of fair, but unlikely to improve.

Officers at Derwentside Leisure have spent the past 18 months in a drive to prove the inspectors wrong, and their efforts were rewarded with the announcement that the service has won a two-star rating.

The report praises the £700,000 refurbishment of the Empire Theatre, in Consett, and the conversion of Stanley Civic Hall into the Lamplight Arts Centre.

Sarah Diggle, of the Audit Commission, said: "Derwentside council has made good progress in improving its leisure service over the past 18 months.

"It has improved the overall quality of its facilities and the conversion of the Stanley Civic Hall into a multi-purpose arts venue has been a great success."

The report commends the service on several counts, including making swimming, public parks and children's play areas a priority.

But it highlights weaknesses in the service, such as the closure of many play areas due to the poor and unsafe state of the equipment.

It criticises the lack of a skate park and an all-weather, floodlit sports pitch, such as the award-winning site which is privately operated by the community association in Delves Lane, near Consett.