Harrogate Rugby Union Club will decide within a fortnight how to progress its fight to move to a new home after councillors scuppered its plans for a farmland site.

Club officials, buoyed by unanimous support from an open meeting of members - and from Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Phil Willis, who dashed from an engagement in Ipswich to attend - will meet the borough council early next week.

The moves behind the scenes follow the rejection five weeks ago - by a single vote - of planning permission for the club to relocate to Moorland Farm at Killinghall.

Secretary Ian Gair said club officers would meet senior councillors including the leader Geoff Webber to outline the options available. "After this the committee will meet to review the position and decide on the way forward," he said.

Mr Gair said the committee was delighted at the stance of Mr Willis who had offered his unequivocal backing to the club in its fight to retain senior rugby in the Harrogate district and enhance facilities for what is believed to be the largest junior section in the north. Mr Gair said: "We had a good meeting and received the enthusiastic backing of a membership that is ready for the fight whichever of the available options we choose."

An appeal against refusal had not been ruled out and the option of resubmission of the Moorland Farm scheme, either as it stood or in an amended form, was still on the table. The club had received offers of other sites but they had all been eliminated.