TWO of Wear Valley's main leisure centres are facing demolition as a council reconsiders its options for the future.

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

Wear Valley District Council's head of community and cultural services, Bob Hope, said talks on the future of the leisure centres and swimming pools in Wolsingham had been continuing 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 Sixties and Seventies 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, including health services, schools and community centres.

The one-stop shop theme could be funded through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) rather than being considered to be the sole responsibility of the council. The replacement buildings would not necessarily be built on the site of 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 the Wear Valley 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 at the discussion stage.

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