Ilkley stage amateurs are appealing to the public to help them find the final £5,000 needed to complete a multi-thousand pound restoration of their new venue.

Members of the Ilkley Up-Stagers are delighted that a Lottery-funded project to transform an old barn into a permanent base will soon be complete.

A Lottery grant of £194,000, and significant fundraising of more than £64,000 has changed a former brewery building behind the Midland Hotel into a centre which members hope will add to Ilkley's reputation for dramatic excellence.

Gill Jackson, the Up-Stagers artistic director, said: "Much of the work is complete and Totty, the building firm, has now left the site. It is now a question of having the building decorated and furnished. We are all very pleased with the way things have gone but we want to make sure the building is as well equipped as possible."

Mrs Jackson said she appreciated that many people had already pledged financial support to the scheme, but an extra £5,000 would give the Up-Stagers an important cushion.

"We don't actually know as yet how much the scheme will have cost, but it would be brilliant if we could raise that little bit extra to really complete the project with a flourish," she said.

Mrs Jackson is hoping the doors will be thrown open to the public in mid-summer and she is looking forward to using the new facilities which include a rehearsal area, storage space and a meeting room.

She is also hoping Hi-Di-Hi star Su Pollard, who dug the first sod on the site when work started in October, will perform the official opening.

There is also good news for The Warehouse project based in Little Lane. Roy Fox, chairman of the Ilkley Youth and Community Association, said it was hoped a long-term lease would be signed in the next couple of weeks, allowing the centre to raise money for improvements.

Mr Fox said: "The lease from Bradford Council is important in that it will allow us to approach different sources of funding, who would not have considered us before due to the lack of a lease."

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