THE future of one of the North-East's leading breweries looked to have been secured last night after a hostile take-over bid for its parent company was turned down.

A bid by Hartlepool-based Pubmaster to buy Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries (WDB), owners of Camerons, was rejected yesterday when it won the support of just under half WDB's shareholders.

The move clears the way for the sale of Camerons to Castle Eden Brewery, and was last night welcomed by campaigners as a victory for independent brewing in the region.

Castle Eden plans to abandon its brewery near Peterlee and shift operations to Camerons in Hartlepool, which would produce both brands, safeguarding the jobs of most of the 150 workers at both sites.

Castle Eden proposes to partly fund its purchase of Camerons through the sale of its Peterlee site to housing developers Persimmon.

Within hours of the announcement that the bid had failed, Easington District Council said it had received planning applications for the partial demolition of the listed buildings and the development of 63 houses and 13 flats.

A spokesman for Castle Eden said the deal would have gone through even if Pubmaster's bid had been successful, but Brendan Boyle, Darlington branch spokes-man for the Campaign for Real Ale, said the failure of the bid made the proposed buy-out more likely.

Pubmaster had not given any public assurance that the deal with Castle Eden would be allowed to go through.

Mr Boyle said: "At least this gives a chance of the brewery surviving - with the Pubmaster bid there was a risk that all four of WDB's breweries would go to the wall."