A leading York sports club has announced it will appeal against the City of York Council's decision to deny it discretionary rate relief, which is part of a controversial plan to cutting back on spending.

The number of organisations receiving DRR has been reduced by introducing criteria which organisations must meet in order to qualify for help.

The criteria had been agreed by the leisure services committee last October, but Liberal Democrat Councillors have vowed to take legal advice over the way it had been applied in the decision making process.

Chris Houseman, secretary of York and District Sports Council and of York Cricket and Rugby Club, accused the committee of taking a "reckless approach" and said it was unfair to penalise clubs which had built up financial reserves.

"The Cricket and Rugby Club was losing money four years ago but we got a grip on the situation and now have some £20,000 surplus on our assets," he said.

"But we are being punished for this by having our rate relief taken away. If we don't build up funds how are we to develop in the future and pay for repairs and equipment?"

And yesterday the Yorkshire Museum of Farming, at Murton and the Yorkshire Air Museum, at Elvington, which have both lost their DRR, said they would be facing extreme financial hardship.

Liberal Democrat Councillors sought to make exceptions among other organisations, which had also been denied DRR, but council officers warned that would mean the whole process would have to be begun again from scratch to ensure equality.

But after two Liberal Democrat amendments were voted down and the original recommendation passed, Coun Steve Galloway said he would be seeking legal experts to challenge the decision.

Coun Bob Scrase, chairing the meeting, said all the decisions made were open to appeal by any organisations unhappy at the outcome and said in cases of special hardship it might be possible to find funding to make up any shortfall from other sources.

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