A ROYAL opening could be on the cards for a North Yorkshire community project.

The Duke of York made the promise yesterday - if the project is completed in time.

Riccall Regen 2000, near Selby, and Manor Farm Area Project at Nether Poppleton, York, were among ten community efforts awarded charters by The Duke of York's Community Initiative.

The Duke presented the charters at a ceremony at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

And he told Riccall Regen's chairman Alison Seabrooke that he would attend the opening of the village's new community centre if it were finished by June next year. Regen 2000 has raised £1.4 million through grants, donations and local fundraising to build a new community centre which will offer adult learning, childcare and local help and information in a village which has suffered from the decline in mining.

It was planned to have the centre completed by July or August next year as the "last piece in the puzzle" of a sports field development started 20 years ago.

But after a chat with the Duke at yesterday's ceremony, Alison said: "He asked when we would have it finished. When I told him, he said if we could finish by June 2000 he would come along because he is visiting another project in the area.

"It will give our architects and builders an incentive to move quickly," she said.

The Duke also presented a charter award to Janet Hopton, of Nether Poppleton's Manor Farm Area Project, which the local community began in 1989 to preserve an historic farm earmarked for housing development.

The £250,000 initiative involves restoring the Tithe Barn, creating a wildlife area and preserving the Moat Field, an ancient monument site, for recreation.

The Duke of York's Community Initiative was set up by the Duke to encourage community projects throughout Yorkshire after he visited York's Bell Farm estate and was impressed by the residents' efforts to inject new life into the estate.

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