A BRIDE-TO-BE whose wedding reception was due to be held at Selby’s fire-wrecked Abbey Leisure Centre says things are looking better for her and her fiancé – they have found an alternative venue.

Lydia Chilton is due to marry Byron Ivey at St James’s Church in Selby on May 5.

She told The Press last week how she had been left “heartbroken”, after the leisure centre was virtually destroyed by the fire on Tuesday.

Miss Chilton, 38, said they had paid their deposit to the leisure centre only a few hours before the fire started in a first-floor sauna. It caused such a massive amount of damage that there is a possibility the building may have to be pulled down and rebuilt.

Miss Chilton, who works as a teaching assistant at Longmans Hill CP School, in Selby, said: “Things are looking better for us than on Tuesday.

“I had a phone call on Thursday from someone at the leisure centre who told me they are going to deal with it and it sounds like we will get our deposit back.”

The couple looked at several alternative venues and now have chosen Selby Squash and Leisure Club.

A spokesman for Selby District Council, which owns the leisure centre, said the reports from the insurance company and structural engineers had not yet been returned to them, but members and users of the facilities were currently being contacted by Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust, which runs the centre for the council, and all users’ direct debits would be stopped until suitable alternatives could be found.