A CLUBHOUSE building which has stood unfinished and unused for a number of years is tipped to become a community hub.

Construction work on the ambitious project to provide changing rooms, a club room and pitches for amateur rugby league started on Albert Road, Queensbury, in 2009.

The facility was 17 years in the planning and received substantial funding from both Sport England and Bradford Council.

Work on the clubhouse ground to a halt and the building remains unfinished to this day.

But there’s hope on the horizon and a new group - the Albert Road Community Hub - has been set up to move the project forward and bring the long-awaited facility to the village.

Vince Butler, Mathew Flanagan and Steve Hird, from Queensbury ARLFC, are the trio behind the plans.

Mr Butler said there had been “massive frustration” over the clubhouse in Queensbury, but the friends are keen to see the project through to completion.

He said: “The vision for the building is for it to be a community hub for the village, not just run as a sports venue.

“It’s too big to run as a rugby club so we’ve got other sporting clubs who want to come in, who are keen to come in and use the facilities.

“It’s going to have a bar, a social room, so there’s going to be functions and various other things.

“We’re just hoping that it will get used and used and used - from the bits of research we’ve done and the feedback we’ve had, we’ve got potential that it will be used seven days a week.”

He added: “The community support is there, we’ve just got to make sure that we do it stage by stage and get it done right.

“It’s not going to be cheap and it’s not going to be easy - there’s a lot of hard work to do but we’ve got a really good community in the rugby club, we’ve got a lot of tradespeople. There’s a lot of work we can do ourselves.”

Funding options are being looked at and it’s hoped it could be finished in the next 12 months or so.

As well as the building, the playing fields still require some work.

Mr Butler said there would hopefully be another pitch at the topside and, potentially, a track around the outside.

He said: “Our aim is to get everybody back up here, get rugby back played in the village. We’re 81-years-old this year, so we’re one of the oldest clubs in Yorkshire, not just Bradford, we’ve got to maintain that.”

The group say it is also exciting times for the rugby club moving forward, as the juniors and the open age sides are coming together to become one club.

A spokesperson for Bradford Council said: “We’re pleased to be able to offer assistance to Albert Road Community Hub in order to help bring the clubhouse back into use and will support the group in looking for funding.”