DELIGHTED officials have welcomed a compromise deal which could secure the future of their popular Bury sports club.

For many years Bolton Road Sports Club and its landlord Bolton Road Methodist Church were locked in a bitter land battle.

Controversy centred around church plans to build housing on the sports ground to fund the building of a new place of worship.

But the two bodies eventually stopped fighting and threw their weight behind plans to build a new sports club on green belt land near Ainsworth village.

And even though this fell through when it was refused planning permission last May, housing developer Wainhomes, the third party in the deal, has come forward with another solution.

The company identified a new site on land off Dow Lane, not far from the club's Elton home.

If a new sports club is built there, Wainhomes would be able to go ahead with the housing development at the Bolton Road site, allowing the church space and funds to replace its building on the same land.

Sports club officials are at last looking forward to the prospect of a secure future stretching well into the Millennium.

Mr John Law, who acts as club president and chairman, said: "We are pleased that an alternative site for a sports field has been identified locally. Should the planning applications be successful it will secure the long-term future of our sports club, thus allowing us to continue to serve the community of west Bury, as indeed we have done with distinction for the past 75 years."

Bury Council has given tentative support for the sports club to move to Dow Lane - off Ainsworth Road - although a planning application has not yet been made.

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