One of the most popular attractions in a town's leisure park is to be extended as part of a half-a-million pound improvement package.

Craven district council aims to increase the 12 hole pitch and put course - which attracts thousands of players a year - by another three holes.

Planners have applied for permission to change the use of a field, owned by the Council, to enable the work to be carried out at Aireville Park in Gargrave Road, Skipton.

The work, funded by a £460,000 grant from the Government's capital challenge pot, is part of a wider scheme to improve the park also involving bids to the National Heritage fund.

The planning application comes as officers prepare a second bid- in the region of £200,000 - to Heritage Lottery bosses to help complete the refurbishment.

It will pay for improvements to fencing and walls around the perimeter of the park where work has just started on building a wheelpark, an independent scheme set up following a campaign to raise £40,000 spearheaded by Methodist Minister David Emison.

Tony Mullin, Craven's external partnership officer, said phase one of the heritage improvement, financed by a £189,000 grant, had been completed and involved resurfacing pathways, new lighting and litter bins and removing a concrete plinth.

"Improvements to the perimeter of the park are dependent on additional funding from the national heritage,'' he said.

The pitch and put improvements were part of the council's capital challenge bid and included work to the Leeds-Liverpool canal towpath - in partnership with British Waterways - and the setting up of a new play area.

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