VILLAGERS are losing hope that a chiropody service can be spared from the axe.

Residents of Sadberge were told recently that the village hall did not conform to health and safety rules - meaning the popular service had to be scrapped after 36 years.

The newly-established GP and nurse-led Sedgefield Primary Care Trust (PCT) announced the news.

Users of the facility have been urged to contact the PCT to make their views known, but community leaders fear that may have little effect.

Councillor Beatrice Cuthbertson, chairman of the parish council, said: "One or two of the patients have said they will have to attend Park Place, in Darlington.

"At the moment there is nothing moving on this and I don't think there will be."

The PCT has said that sites did not meet safety standards, but that clients had been offered alternative appointments nearest to their homes.