TWO of Wear Valley's main leisure centres could be facing demolition as a council rethinks their future.

Both Glenholme Leisure Centre in Crook, and Woodhouse Leisure Centre, Bishop Auckland, could be replaced with state-of-the-art facilities that would involve more community-based activities.

Head of Community and Cultural Services at Wear Valley District Council Bob Hope said that talks on the future of the leisure centres and swimming pools in Wolsingham, have been on-going since 1999.

He said: "It does not mean that all this is going to happen tomorrow. We have to accept that these leisure centres are coming to the end of their shelf lives and are becoming more expensive to maintain especially when you are dealing with buildings that contain swimming pools. It could work out cheaper in the long term to demolish them and start again.

"These buildings were built in the 60s/70s and what we will be looking at is a building that would take us through the next 30 or so years.''

One of the ideas that is being explored is the possibility of bringing together other services under one roof such as health, schools and community centres.

This one-stop shop theme could be funded through Public Funding Initiatives rather than being the sole responsibility of the council.

The replacement buildings will not necessarily be built on the same site as the existing ones.

Mr Hope said: "There are several sites nearby that could be of use. Gone are the days when councils can be solely responsible for the daily costs of running of things. We are not sure how this would work but yes we could look at the idea of PFI funding.''

He said that Wear Valley District Council was not the only authority that was having to reassess the way it delivered leisure facilities.

He said: "This is happening all over the country because of Government guidelines and everybody is having to face the fact that a lot of leisure centres are becoming expensive to maintain.''

Mr Hope also stressed that the plans were very much at the discussion stage and nothing is being ruled out.

He said: "We are just looking at the viable options.''