THE new committee aiming to take over the running of the former Ryedale Indoor Bowls Club is urging bowls players and other users of club to attend a crunch meeting of Ryedale District Council.

Alongside the bid to purchase the building and transform it into a community facility, the Ryedale Leisure and Community Centre steering committee will also ask Ryedale District Council at its meeting on Thursday, September 5, to allow the bowls players to use the club for it’s winter season from September to December.

Coun Di Keal, deputy mayor of Norton, said: “We have about 100 players who want to come back and bowl at the club if Ryedale councillors will agree to let them have a licence to operate for the winter season. This can, and should, happen while bigger plans are being developed to run the centre in the future.

“The building is standing empty at the moment which is a real shame and I would call on as many people who want to see it up and running again to attend this meeting and urge their councillors to support the bid to get the building in use again as soon as possible.

She said: “We have exciting plans in the pipeline to try to secure the future of the building in the longer term, but it seems foolish not to let the bowls players – who will be an integral part of the bigger plans – use it in the meantime rather than have to drive to York or elsewhere to enjoy their sport.”

The steering group wants to acquire the building and transform it into a community hub, with a number of core tenants, alongside a variety of other regular users.

The centre will continue to cater for the popular game of indoor bowls, but will look to reduce the bowling space from eight lanes to four.

Work is currently under way on a business case and designs are being drawn up to improve and update the building to house a variety of multi-purpose spaces catering for community organisations and other partners.

Chairman of the steering committee John Harrison said: “The committee is very much aware that we need the full backing and support of the Ryedale community including all those bowls players and previous users of the club.

“We are asking them to turn out on September 5 at Ryedale House at 6.30pm to show how they feel about the future of this important community issue and be a part of what will be an exciting new phase in the history of the centre.”