A CRUCIAL meeting has decided the future policy for the development of sports facilities across a district.

Leisure chiefs seemed to face a difficult choice between either a multi-million pound partnership with the Army at Catterick Garrison or with schools in Leyburn and Richmond.

But on Tuesday night, Richmondshire District Council agreed to invest a total of £800,000 in all three.

The council will spend £500,000 buying into a partnership with the Ministry of Defence and the private sector.

It will cover the cost of new facilities at the garrison, which will include a swimming pool, sports hall, squash and tennis courts, a fitness suite and a caf.

The remaining £300,000 will be spent refurbishing sports halls at both Wensleydale School and Richmond School.

At Richmond, the plan is to refurbish the sports hall and either to build new changing rooms for floodlit sports pitches or a new activity and fitness suite.

In Leyburn, the money will cover the cost of a new two-court sports hall.

All the new facilities will be open to the public.

Richmondshire District Council leader John Blackie said: "After last year's decision by Sport England not to approve plans involving both Richmond and Wensleydale schools, we were forced to look at this whole issue again.

"The emergence of the Army's plan for Catterick gave us yet another plan to consider," he said.

"In the end, the scale of those plans was such that we simply could not afford to ignore them.

"Having said that, we are still keen to work with local schools and continue to develop facilities which will be complementary to those provided at Catterick Garrison.

"Given the rural nature of the district, the council is already committed to increasing accessibility by developing a network of good-quality leisure facilities in areas where they are needed most.

"Continuing to work with schools allows us to pursue this policy and that was something the committee considered a real priority.