A RALLYING call has gone out to avoid last orders being called at one of the North- East’s oldest workingmen’s clubs.

Following an emergency meeting last week, officials have put together a financial package aimed at ensuring the future of the 189-year-old Wolsingham Workingmen’s Men’s Club, in Weardale, County Durham. This will be presented to the club’s annual meeting next Monday.

Proposed measures include raising members’ subscriptions from £2 to £5 a year and cutting opening hours.

But, more importantly, officials want to apply for a public licence, which would allow the club to open for a greater number of social events.

In an impassioned appeal, Weardale’s representative on Durham County Council, Anita Savory, a club member for 28 years, said: “This is no time to sit on the fence. We must unite to keep this valuable asset alive, not only for Wolsingham, but for the whole of Weardale.”

Councillor Savory, whose father, Pat Gallagher, was a former club president, said: “Once something disappears from the community, it never comes back, when it’s gone, it’s gone for ever.

“This club has some of the best social facilities in the area. It’s much too valuable an asset to lose.”

Coun Savory has raised thousands of pounds by staging charity functions at the club.

Although it has paid off a £74,000 loan taken out with two breweries eight years ago, club secretary and local businesswoman Maureen Stanton admitted the club was treading a fine line with finances.

“We have wonderful premises here, but we are still a private members club, which means we can only stage up to 12 social events a year,” she said.

“But if we get a public licence we would be able to hold many social events, like wedding receptions, christenings and musical events. This would make it a truly public club at the heart of the community.”

The club, which started life as Wolsingham Mechanics Institute in 1820, has been affiliated to the Club and Institute Union (CIU) for more than 100 years.

In its heyday, when the local steelworks, quarries and mines were at their peak, it had nearly 2,000 members.

Now that figure has shrunk to about 450.

Mick McGlasham, Durham County CIU chairman, applauded the move to apply for a public licence.

“A public licence would remove a lot of restrictions on the use of the premises and is the best way forward. Several other clubs in the county are looking at going down this road,” he said.

Mr McGlasham said he was very disappointed at the lack of support the CIU had received from local MPs for clubs, which were “really, really struggling” because of recent Government legislation on smoking and increased taxation on alcoholic drinks.

There are 225 CIU clubs in County Durham, compared with 350 ten years ago.

Mr McGlasham said four had been forced to close last year and he expected another five to follow in the next 12 months.