A NEW partnership between council and Army chiefs could be on the verge of bringing much-needed sports facilities to Richmondshire.

District council leaders are to hold talks with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) about the possibility of a joint venture to provide a new sports complex at Catterick Garrison.

The council is also looking to scale down its plans to provide sports halls in Richmond and Leyburn after suffering disappointment when a massive bid for National Lottery funding was rejected.

The latest move comes in the wake of Richmondshire's failed application to Sport England for £2.9m towards the creation of four-court sports halls at Richmond and Wensleydale schools. Executive director Tony Clark said the council had approach-ed the MoD to discuss its plans to improve facilities in Catterick.

"We have asked whether they would be interested in entering into a partnership to develop new purpose-built sport and recreational facilities, which would operate on a dual-use basis - part of the time by the Ministry of Defence for training purposes, with the remainder of the time being available for use by the general public."

The Commanding Officer at the garrison, Nick Gaskell, said: "With a partnership between the garrison and Richmondshire District Council underpinning the project, together we will probably be able to provide a better facility than either party could deliver independently. As a result, the wider community will benefit and this, I believe, will hold true whichever option for the provision of the centre is chosen and however many other partners are involved."

Councillors meeting on Tuesday are also being recommended to back a smaller-scale project to provide an indoor sports hall in Leyburn - a scheme which Sport England has suggested it would support.

Mr Clark admitted a two-court hall would be a "major revision" of the council's original plans, but said it was now the most logical step forward.

"In recognition that there is a need in mid and lower Wensleydale for indoor sports provision, there may be scope to revise the council's strategy to support the provision of a smaller indoor hall to be located in Leyburn," he said