FYLDE Rugby Club has been given the go-ahead for a housing development on its grounds which could save it from possible closure.

The club, on Blackpool Road, Ansdell, faced an uncertain future with current debts believed to be around £750,000.

But members of Fylde Borough Council's development control committee voted yesterday (Wednesday) to throw the club a lifeline and grant outline planning permission for a 1.16 hectare development on the site.

The Ansdell community is also expected to benefit from the approval which included the condition that upgraded sports facilities be made available to locals including a new junior pitch, an all-weather surface and improvements to the club house and car park.

The decision could end a turbulent time for the club in which two years as a professional organisation created spiralling debts and the club had to return downpayment on a failed development bid to food store Booths.

Councillor Trevor Fiddler, Fylde's development control committee chairman, said: "It has been a very long running saga. Booths tried to develop a supermarket there and that fell foul of the government's out of town shopping policies."

But a government inspector then decided differently during the process of drawing up the local plan, he said.

"The opportunity to make progress was when the local plan inspector studied the detail of the local plan and came to the conclusion that we can safeguard the sporting facilities.

"It's a life-line for the club but equally I think we all realise what an important sporting facility Fylde Rugby Club is."

Committee vice-chairman Councillor Mrs Hilda Wilson added that further decisions would now have to be taken about access to the site.

Nobody at the club was available for comment as The Citizen went to press, but it is understood chiefs welcomed the decision saying if the application had been rejected the club almost certainly faced closure.