A CONTROVERSIAL plan to bulldoze a village community centre and replace it with flats is still on the cards.

Trustees of the Middleton St George hall say they are near bankrupt and fear being made to pay any shortfall out of their own pockets. They see a sale as the only way out.

Mike Latter, management committee chairman, said: "We have six members and need a quorum of five just to instruct the holding trustees, simply names under which the building is vested, to sell up.

"We would all like to resign, but we can't. We need at least £5,000 just to prop us up as we are darned near penniless now."

He said the building, which this year loses a £4,500 borough council grant, had never paid its way and now its insurance had shot up from £1,500 to £2,500.

He confessed that the offers so far of about £150,000 for flats on the site were not enough. Any offer would have to be in line with a surveyor's report and approved by the Charity Commissioners.

Worried villagers, who had been warned the centre - used by scouts and brownies - would close in April, have petitioned their MP, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, for help.

But Mr Latter said yesterday that the April closure could be on hold.

"The idea now is to ask developers for a non-returnable deposit of about £5,000 while they try to get planning permission.

"That way at least, even if they fail, we can keep it open to the end of the year."

Middleton St George Parish Council, concerned that events were steaming ahead without proper consultation, has sent a solicitor's letter to Mr Latter asking for assurances.

Coun Doris Jones said she sympathised, but any move to put flats on the water park would be deeply unpopular.

She had offered to meet Mr Latter to discuss other avenues, but he had not responded either to that or to the offer of a £3,000 parish grant.

Mr Latter maintained everything was at an exploratory stage and anyone who thought they could do a better job could take over.

"I have had slanderous comments made about me, have had it said I am taking bribes and been shouted at in the street," he said.

"This has cost me days off work and sleepless nights and has caused me a helluva lot of anguish. I don't deserve this."

A progress report will be made at an open meeting at the centre on Wednesday, February 12, at 7.30