A concrete folly, a slimy old bridge or an international masterpiece by the Corbusier of County Durham?

A concrete folly, derided by those living nearby as a "slimy old bridge", has been proclaimed by architectural watchdogs as an "internationally important masterpiece".

The Pasmore Pavilion, designed by Victor Pasmore, a major figure of the post-war British avant-garde, was conceived as "an architecture and sculpture of purely abstract form through which to walk, in which to linger and on which to play".

Built in 1963, it was the artist's post-modernist contribution to Peterlee, Co Durham, where he was appointed consulting director of urban design.

The "Corbusier of Co Durham", now 87 but then the Master of Painting at Durham University, had wanted to bring some cheer to the lives of miners relocated from pit villages.

But to residents of Sunny Blunts estate, the pavilion and the polluted pond it spans has brought only misery as a target for vandalism and a meeting place for teenagers with a predilection for al fresco sex.

Easington council feels the same way. It is objecting to English Heritage's recommendation to Virginia Bottomley, the Secretary of State for National Heritage, that the sculpture should be Grade II listed. It has asked the Government's Conservation Agency to abandon its plans to list the sculpture and assist instead in its demolition.

Joan Maslin, councillor for Sunny Blunts, is the pavilion's fiercest critic, having campaigned for 14 years for its removal and lobbied the Prince of Wales, Sir Jimmy Savile and the Army for their help.

"The name Victor Pasmore means nothing in Peterlee," she said. "All we know is that we have a heap of dirty, slimy concrete covered in graffiti, which youths climb up to have sex on and from which to urinate on passers- by.

"Nobody here wants it and if English Heritage does, they should take it somewhere else and list it there. "

Elain Harwood, an English Heritage historian, insists that the sculpture is a national treasure which needs to be restored and maintained.

"It's an absolutely unique work of considerable international importance," she said. "It was an extraordinary thing to put in the heart of a new town. There isn't another piece of public sculpture like it anywhere in the country - neither Pasmore nor any other artist did anything like it again."

Ms Harwood said she was "disappointed" that the pavilion was so unloved.

"It's the one thing that makes people go there," she said. "We are trying to put the town on the map and they're saying, No!"

Pasmore, who said on a visit to Peterlee in 1982 that the vandalism had humanised his pavilion, demonstrating its acceptance by the community, could not be contacted.