A RUNDOWN social centre urgently needs the community to rally round to ensure it is not forced to close.

Representatives from Oxenhope Social Club - known locally as The Idiot Hut - warned that their building is reaching the end of its life.

They want more people to support the club by attending events there and by becoming members.

Robert Goulding and Andrew Heaton said there was planning permission to put a replacement building on the same site, but the club's viability had to be demonstrated to secure a bank loan to complete the work.

Mr Goulding has told Oxenhope Parish Council how the club has been told it needs to make consistent profits.

"We are running out of time because the building is rapidly coming to the end of its life," he said.

"It's a wooden hut and it's rotting away and it would be a real shame if the club had to close. It's been part of the village since the 1930s.

"We do have several thousand pounds worth of reserves but we might need to spend all that just to patch the building up to keep it going."

The club, which currently has about 70 members, is in Watson Close, off Lowertown.

The venue was dubbed The Idiot Hut thanks to the existing building's unusual history.

It began life as a Methodist chapel in Nelson, Lancashire. However, in the 1930s, a group of mill workers and farmers pooled their resources to buy it, travelled to Nelson, then brought the building to Oxenhope piece by piece using a horse and cart.

The property was then out back together in Lowertown.

The Club members' plans are for a rendered breeze block structure, which would have a kitchen, toilets and access for disabled people.

Mr Heaton said the estimated cost of knocking down the old building and building its replacement was about £120,000.

He stressed that the more people staged and attended functions at the club, the more likely it was to qualify for a bank loan to pay for the rebuild.

Oxenhope Parish councillor Penny Cusdin said the organisation could help publicise the club's drive to encourage greater community involvement.

Councillor Ken Eastwood suggested the club could try something similar to Hebden Bridge's Fox and Goose Pub, where shares in the building were sold to local residents, making it a community-owned pub.

"There's always been something quite quirky about the social club and to see it go would be a real loss to the village," he said.