WHITBY Rugby Club youngsters are to present a 3,000-name petition to Scarborough Town Hall in protest over a rent dispute which could force the club to fold within 12 to 18 months.
The juniors will hand the petition over to the council at midday on Wednesday in a bid to make the authority listen to the strength of local feeling over the wrangle.
If the club does fold, it would deprive around 160 senior and junior players of r
egular rugby action throughout the season.
It would also mean members of the Whitby Squash Club and local footballers would have no facilities available.
Rugby club secretary Ron Bennion told the Gazette this week: "The petition was put together by the mini and junior sections because of the groundswell of opinion that if the facility goes, there will be nothing to replace it."
The rent dispute centres around whether Scarborough Council, as landlords, should increase the rent following the club's own improvements which they themselves have funded for the past 30 years.
Whitby won planning permission for a clubhouse in the 1960s, extending the club to provide two squash courts and then rebuilding the clubhouse and changing rooms, all out of its own pocket and at no expense to the council.
The club says the issue of tenants' improvements has never been raised by the council.
In 2004, within weeks of a new lease, backdated to 1999, being signed, the council demanded a rent increase from £2,950 to £11,250 with demands for back rent of more than £15,000 meaning the club would become insolvent and close within 12 to 18 months.
Since the Gazette exclusively broke the story in March, we have been inundated with letters of support from past and present players as well as the local community.
And to add insult to injury, Scarborough Rugby Club has been granted planning permission for a £3m ground redevelopment by the same council.
The full article contains 331 words and appears in Whitby Gazette Friday newspaper.
