ATHERTON'S well loved servicemen's club is up for sale but the club's secretary has reassured members it will NOT be closing down.

Douglas Findlay, secretary of The Discharged and Demobilised Sailors' and Soldiers' Association Club on Tyldesley Road said the club will simply continue as normal, possibly under new owners.

He said: " Initially we are trying to find a buyer for the land at the back of the club, which we estimate at being worth £100,000.

"If we sell this, all our financial problems will be solved and we can continue running for another 20 years. If a buyer is interested in the actual club itself, then we will either sell up and move premises or issue a covenant that the club must be kept as it is -- a servicemen's club for the people of Atherton.

"If someone takes it on, it won't close -- it will stay open in one form or another. It is too good an amenity for the people of Atherton to close it."

The struggling club, which costs nearly £1,000 a week before the doors open, recently applied for charity status.

When the club was first set up in 1919, it was run as a charity, when pensions and cash handouts were given to ex-servicemen and their families in need.

Mr Findlay said: "The application was successful, but we can't operate as a charity while we have a licensed bar. If we sell the land, we can pay off the brewery."

At the annual meeting, members acknowledged that the club was cash poor and asset rich and it was agreed that they should investigate every avenue for fund raising, including the possible sale of land.

Members have also tried to rid the public of the image that the club was only for old 'fuddy duddies'.

Currently, the club, which has offered aid to servicemen, ex-servicemen and their families, runs a slimmers club meeting, line dancing and promotes functions and concerts.

Mr Findlay said: " It would be an act of vandalism not to keep it open."