THE sound of wedding bells could soon be ringing out of Ilkley's King's Hall/Winter Gardens complex if an application for a marriage licence is successful.

Already three couples have expressed an interest in tying the knot beneath the roof of the council-owned theatre and exhibition venue, said Bradford's theatre manager John Botteley.

But the idea has been greeted with raised eyebrows by Ilkley parish councillors who want more money spent on the down-at-heel complex to restore it to its former glory.

Mr Botteley said: "We are in the process of applying to the Registrar of births, marriages and deaths for a licence. We are all for it - if we can get weddings there it is good news.

"I would think there is a good possibility that we could have the first wedding by October or November this year."

Parish councillor Mike Lynes agreed that a wedding licence for the building would be a good idea, but he doubted it would be a major attraction in its present state of disrepair.

Coun Lynes said: "I would have said that if it was in a good condition that it would be an ideal location for people to plan their own designer wedding. But in its present state it would only attract a small number of people."

Since the Government changed the law on where couples can marry a couple of years ago, only two other public buildings in Ilkley have successfully applied for marriage venue licenses.

The Craiglands Hotel on Cowpasture Road is still licensed to hold wedding ceremonies but the licence granted to the Glenmoor training and conference centre, in the grounds of Ilkley College, was not renewed this year. The building has been put up for sale by Bradford Council.

Mr Botteley said that officials were still awaiting a decision on lottery funding for a feasibility study for restoration work at the King's Hall/Winter Gardens.

Even if the Arts Council provides the cash, officials would have to re-apply for the funds to carry out the work needed at a much later stage.

Mr Botteley said that essential health and safety work had exhausted the KIngs Hall/Winger Gardens maintenance budget for the last few years but now there was spare cash for redecoration work.

Coun Lynes said that even if the lottery bid was successful, it would be years before any actual work was carried out apart from decoration.

He called for Bradford Council to increase the sums spent on the buildings now in order to carry out repairs and restoration instead of leaving everything deteriorating while lottery money is applied for.

"It is a great shame that they don't put back into it the budget they had previously for the maintaining the buildings," said Coun Lynes.King's Hall/

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.