A RUN-DOWN bowling pavilion used by park visitors for nearly 100 years is to undergo £25,000 worth of repairs.

The pavilion, built in the 1920's is in Chilton Miners’ Welfare Park but has become very run down over the years.

A group of volunteers, The Friends of the Park, decided to raise funds needed to carry out all of the necessary repairs.

The bulk of the funds have been collected via grants but the Friends team is still roughly £2,000 short of its target.

The proposed work includes creating a meeting room and useable toilets. Social housing provider livin is to fit a free kitchen for the group.

Durham County Councillor Christine Potts, chairwoman of the Friends group, gave nearly £4,000 to the project from her councillor’s neighbourhood budget.

She said: “This building has a lot of character but it has fallen into complete disrepair.

“It’s an old building and we decided that we would like to have it brought back into a good state of repair so that it could be used by the people of Chilton.

“A group of volunteers got together and thought let’s bring the building back into shape.

“It’s for the whole of Chilton to use and hopefully we will be able to re-open the facility just after Easter.”

Chilton Town Council is the trustee of the building which it looks after on behalf of the people of Chilton.