A GYMNASTICS club training aspiring Olympic stars could help take over its home leisure centre to save it from closure, it has emerged.

Leaders of Deerness Gymnastics Club, which has produced several national champions, have joined an action group to save Deerness leisure centre, in Ushaw Moor, near Durham.

The centre is one of six facing the axe under Durham County Council plans to save 1.3m a year.

The Deerness campaigners, who also include parish councillors, residents and centre users, hope to convince the council to spare its facility or - if that fails - to run it themselves as a social enterprise.

More than 150 people packed out a hall in the leisure centre on Saturday, as a public meeting was held to discuss its future.

Karl Wharton, a gym club coach, spoke; and is helping drawn up a business plan to take over the facility.

Afterwards, Roberta Blackman-Woods, Durham's Labour MP, said: "The gymnastics centre is probably the key to the centre staying open.

"It's a centre of excellence and an Olympic training centre. Everybody thinks, somehow or other, it's got to stay."

The Labour-run council, which faces cuts of 125m over four years including 67m this year, is consulting on closing leisure centres in Ushaw Moor, Sherburn, Coxhoe, Pity Me, Ferryhill and Crook.

Bosses at Spectrum Leisure and Management (Slam), which runs Spectrum leisure centre, in Willington, hope to take over Sherburn, Coxhoe, Pity Me and Ferryhill but have ruled out running Ushaw Moor's Deerness.

Other private groups are known to be interested in taking over one or more of the facilities.

Last month, county councillor John Wilkinson warned closing Deerness centre could mean the end of the gymnastics club. Alderman Philip Stoddart has also asked the council to save the facility, saying it played a great role nationally and internationally.

Consultation closes on Thursday, May 26. For more information, visit durham.gov.uk.

Abbey Steering Group, which is fighting to save Pity Me's Abbey leisure centre, will hold a public meeting at the centre on Wednesday at 7pm.