IT has been the most painful of births but Darlington Football Club is finally owned by the local community.

No one should pretend that we have the ideal outcome because a great deal of uncertainty remains.

But Darlington FC, born in 1883, is still breathing and that represents a cause for celebration in the context of Quakers being brought back from a 20-minute death in January.

The deal has been agreed thanks to a lot of hard work by campaigners, beginning with the Darlington Rescue Group, and concluded by Darlington FC 1883. They deserve thanks for their enormous commitment.

The role that Darlington MP Jenny Chapman has played from the beginning of the crisis should not be underestimated, nor should the patience and flexibility shown by administrator Harvey Madden.

I have said it before and I say it again that manager Craig Liddle deserves special recognition, along with his players.

There will now be a need for investors to re-commit to the revised plan to give Quakers a sustainable future.

This will involve a move away from Darlington for what will hopefully be a maximum of one year, followed by a return to a potential new home at Blackwell Meadows in an arrangement with Darlington Rugby Club.

That remains to be rubber-stamped but The Northern Echo has made it clear to DFC 1883 chairman Denis Pinnegar that we are prepared to honour our £10,000 investment in the club's future if a credible proposal is finalised.

It was that pledge - along with a similar promise from other leading investors - which helped get today's deal over the line.

Darlington Football Club will only have been worth saving if it gets back to its home town as soon as possible and rebuilds towards a return to the Football League.

And then, of course, there is the thorny question of what happens next to the 25,000-seater stadium on Neasham Road which will now be standing empty.

Darlington cannot afford to have a huge white elephant standing on one of its most prominent sites.