WHARFEDALE Rugby Club is to re-submit plans for a new pitch at its Threshfield ground to help cope with its growing number of players - despite the scheme being refused once before.

In November 1999, Yorkshire Dales National Park planners applied for permission to turn a field, now used to park cars on match days, on the River Wharfe side of Wharfeside Avenue into the new pitch.

But the authority's members urged the club to try harder to obtain the land on the other side of the avenue, between the existing first team pitch and the main road up Wharfedale to Kilnsey as it would not be so visibly obtrusive.

The club argued it had looked into all possibilities of acquiring land for a new pitch adjacent to the ground, but the farmer who owned the land did not want to sell.

And, this week, a planning statement compiled by the rugby club once again reiterated that the quest for alternative sites over the last four years had been unsuccessful with landowners still not wanting to sell the two possible sites near the club.

It was added that a statutory declaration by club president John Spencer made it clear "beyond any shadow of doubt that, at any price, none of the land is available now, nor will be available in the future".

"Given these circumstances, and having spent four years, diligently pursuing the option of land to the west and north west, the club has no alternative but to re-apply on the previously refused site, as this land is the sole realistic opportunity it has of achieving a much-needed additional pitch," it adds.

The club, which has a playing membership of 310, has argued the extra pitch will help it cope with its growing number of players.

The burgeoning membership includes six senior teams, a colts team for the under 18s and all ages of mini rugby from under seven through to under 17. In all the club provides for 11 age groups.

Currently the club only has three pitches, two adjacent to the clubhouse and one on the south west of the river at Wood Lane adjoining Grassington Cricket Club's facilities.

The club has compared this number of pitches to other clubs of a "lower national standing than Wharfedale, and more importantly with many fewer sides".

West Park Bramhope, Bradford and Bingley and Keighley all had one more pitch, whilst Harrogate RUFC, which is in the same league as Wharfedale, is currently developing plans which will give the club a capacity of six junior pitches, five senior pitches and another training pitch, either indoors or all weather.

The Threshfield club also argues that in recent years, it has invested £30,000 in pitch drainage and other improvements.

It says: "Notwithstanding this investment, it has become increasingly apparent that the level of activity has reached a point that it can only be sustained at the detriment of the playing surfaces."

The club commissioned an expert view of the impact of pitch usage from the Sports Turf Research Institute, based at St Ives, Bingley.

It came to the conclusion that "a new pitch is essential if the quality of the existing ones is to be maintained at the present level, let alone improved."

It said that the weight of the fixtures to be fulfilled did not allow for the pitches to be "rested".

The club has estimated that around 30 games will be played on them during the course of the season, plus training during the day.

However, just exactly how much they were used depended on the progress made by the junior and mini teams. It was said that moving these matches would give pitch two a chance to recover from "gross overplaying".

The club has also promised to remove the posts at the end of the season and not re-erect them until the start of the next season. It has also promised not to put up any floodlights, stands, scoreboards, dugouts or shelters.

Gordon Brown, secretary of Wharfedale RUFC said: "We have even engaged the services of a landscape architect this time, which we did not do before. In fact we've done everything we could have."

He added: "If it's the policy of the national park to prevent us using the environs of the community in a time when playing fields are being sold off and youngsters are spending more and more time in front of the television and if it's their policy not to allow us to develop a pitch for which need could not be more clearly established, then it's time to despair."

The application was submitted this week to members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority's planning committee.