COUNCILLORS are ready to bend job creation rules to give boxers with a place to train.

Any change of use of industrial premises not involving business is rarely allowed by Harrogate Borough Council, but faced with a planning application to turn a first-floor industrial unit at Provincial Works, The Avenue, Starbeck, into a boxing club, councillors seem ready to override policy and give the go-ahead.

A decision will be made on Thursday by councillors who will be told that a 90-signature petition has been submitted backing the idea and pointing out that the unit has been empty for three years while others in the complex have become a playgroup and a day centre