BOWLING clubs are being invited to hire Skipton Town Hall as an indoor venue in a bid to claw back some of the £123,530 spent on maintaining the function rooms this year.

This is just one of the avenues being explored to generate more income after Craven District Council discovered that only £40,060 had been raised over the year from letting fees for the public rooms.

The Town Hall Panel has asked head of operations Greg Robinson to try to encourage groups like bowling clubs, Steeton Male Voice Choir, and tea dance organisers to use the venue more frequently.

The problems for the town hall date back to 1991 when a decision was made to increase the cost of renting a room for commercial use to four times than that for charity groups.

In 1991 to 1992 there were 196 commercial bookings, in 1995 to 1996 this was reduced to 64 and for 1998 to 1999 there were fewer than five, with no fairs or flea markets.

And, as income was declining, costs were increasing. Inflation had risen, accounting regulations changed, more money was allocated to be spent on the function rooms and there was a significant growth in the costs of repairs and maintenance.

In 1997 to 1998 efforts were made to reverse the decline by increasing letting fees for charity groups two-fold. But increases were limited to the rate of inflation after groups threatened to pull out as it would significantly reduce the amount of money they raised.

Last week the panel concluded that something had to be done to reverse the trend and asked Mr Robinson to look at making lettings more attractive for commercial groups.

"What I am trying to do is increase interest from the commercial sector. However, weekend bookings will still be given over to the charities," said Mr Robinson.

Anyone who wishes to use the town hall should contact Mr Robinson on 01756 700600.