PLANS are going ahead to build a community centre offering parenting classes to young families in Hartlepool.

Hartlepool Borough Council is seeking planning permission to build a community building near the youth centre, in Rossmere Way.

The £690,000 community building will be used by the Sure Start project, which aims to help the parents give pre-school children the best start in life.

The building will include a creche, playgroup, caf, meeting and consultation rooms and offices, and there will also be outdoor play facilities for the under-fours.

Sure Start is a national initiative to encourage pre-school development for children, especially in less well-off areas.

Parents from the Owton, Rossmere and Seaton Grange areas of Hartlepool will be encouraged to use the building, which will be at the heart of their community.

A council spokesman said: "Sure Start will make services, like post-natal care, more accessible by bringing them to the community.

"A multi-agency team will also be based at the centre.

"There will be playgroups, creches, workshops to develop better parenting skills, and drop-in facilities."

If planning permission is granted for the building and parking area, it is hoped that the centre will be completed some time next year.

The Government has announced an award of £1.494m to help with the running costs of the project up until March 2003.

Some of the money will be used to set up a satellite Sure Start office in the Seaton Grange estate.

Two council houses on the estate will be converted into a centre for the project, which is expected to be running by this summer.

The Sure Start project is currently been run from a rented property in Wynyard Road, which will continue to be used for the next 18 months until the new centre is finished.

The council spokesman said: "Parents in Hartlepool have been consulted about the new building and what they want from Sure Start."

Anyone who would like information on Sure Start in Hartlepool should call (01429) 292444.