OTLEY residents are being urged to speak up to prevent the closure of a long-running community centre and the loss of its green fields.

The call, by Councillor Sandy Lay (Lib Dem, Otley & Yeadon), comes ahead of a drop-in consultation on Thursday, July 16 that could decide Weston Lane Community Centre's future.

Leeds City Council announced last November that the Otley facility, on St Martin's Field, was underused and on a list of ten that had been earmarked for quick "action".

The consultation being held at the building from 4pm to 7pm on Thursday will ask residents to say what they would like to see happen and comment on three options the local authority is considering.

They are:

*To use the centre for a pre-school service, run by a private company.

*To close the building and sell the site for housing

*To keep Weston Lane running as it is, which Leeds says would require it to provide an annual subsidy of about £6,000.

Coun Lay said: "Historically, the council has neither kept up with maintenance of the community centre nor promoted its use, and so it’s no surprise that it is now underused.

"This is an opportunity for the community to offer up ideas for better use for the centre.

"But while the community centre might have fallen out of daily use, the old playing fields next to it are used every single day by local residents who have contacted me, asking for assurances that the fields will be protected from any

future development.

"I will be seeking that reassurance whatever the outcome of the consultation, as this much-needed greenspace must be protected at all costs.

"In the meantime, I’m urging members of the local community to attend the drop-in on Thursday so their views can be heard."

The Otley facility has served as a hub for the local community for more than 40 years but Leeds says it now the least used of all of its centres.

It also cost the council £5,809 to run from 2014 to 2015.