THE future of a sports and social club in Witney has been secured after it was given a new lease by the town council.

The West Witney Sports & Social Club in Burford Road was given an ultimatum by the local authority before Christmas after health and safety inspectors found it did not meet fire, food safety, legionella, and a series of other safety regulations.

The club had until the end of January to put them right.

Its future was also in doubt because it had never been given a formal lease by the town council and there were fears the council planned to sell the site for housing.

But councillors agreed to grant the club a three-year lease until 2018 and said they were happy with the club’s efforts to improve its health and safety.

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Club publicity manager Sue Wilson said she was now “cautiously optimistic” about the future.

She said:”We’ve done everything we needed to do to make it compliant again.

“We’ve got a rolling programme of improvements which we are working on.

“They’ve extended the lease until 2018 so things are going in the right direction.

In December we thought it might be the beginning of the end.”

Mrs Wilson said it has been heartening to see many of the club’s 600 members lend their skills to help fix up the club.

Improvements have included fixing a fire escape from the second floor, putting in an extractor fan in the kitchen, sorting out faulty electrics and connecting the club to mains water.

Mrs Wilson said members are still concerned by the town council’s refusal to grant the club a longer lease. She said it needs a 25-year agreement to secure grant funding contracts.

Members are also concerned the council is discussing plans to build its own changing rooms for sports clubs using the pitches at the site, for which it would charge clubs a going rate, rather than the £10 per use the social club charges.

But town councillor Ben Woodruff, who has been working on the issues surrounding the club for three years, said the club’s future was safe and the council was absolutely committed to its longevity.

He said the council had not granted a longer lease only because it wanted to make sure all the organisations at the site came under the same agreement.

Mr Woodruff said the town council’s plan to build changing rooms at the site was only a temporary measure.