Village halls across the North-East face extinction unless they receive urgent financial help as a result of a Government funding shake-up.

A change in the way the Learning and Skills Council allocates funding for adult education, due to take effect in March, means that many North-East village halls offering courses in the heart of communities will fail to qualify.

Those most likely to suffer run classes like mat making and astronomy in small, isolated communities like Edmundbuyers, Plawsworth and Kimblesworth, Dipton, Ebchester and Waldridge Fell.

While 90 County Durham village halls will continue to be supported under the new regulations, 72 will not.

For many, an additional source of income is the lottery-financed Community Fund, which gives grants for things like disabled facilities.

Due to falling lottery ticket sales, these have been reduced by an estimated £17m nationally in 2000-2001.

It had been hoped that a current review by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would lead to a dedicated Government fund being set up to offer village halls a lifeline.

But according to reports, Alun Michael, the Minister for Rural Affairs, has rejected the idea. Durham county councillor John Shuttleworth, who oversees 12 village halls in the Weardale area, said: "A lot of village halls are shutting and a lot run from hand to mouth.

"The main running costs of a village hall such as insurance are well over the £500 mark. "Hunstanworth Village Hall is just a tin building but they produce a newsletter and have things like a ladies club.

"They only get about £700 a year and if they don't get that, they will be in trouble.

"Alun Michael should go back and think again and consult people involved in rural communities, or there will be no village halls."

Durham County Council has set aside up to £100,000 in emergency funding to support failing village halls.

David Emmerson, the council's education and community manager, said: "We are working with those organisations that don't fall within the adult learning funding formula and they will be supported by advice from officers and members and direct grants."