A MAJOR housing developer has set its sights on the doomed York Civil Service Sports Club, the Evening Press can reveal.

Wilson Connelly Homes has signed an option agreement which gives it first refusal on buying the 14.5-acre green belt site in Boroughbridge Road.

Club members believe the site could be worth an estimated £14 million.

The Evening Press recently reported that the club will shut on April 30 this year in the wake of growing financial problems. It has 900 Civil Service, Post Office and BT members, and facilities include three football pitches, four tennis courts, a cricket square, two squash courts, a netball pitch and an archery area.

It is believed a number of other developers had also bid for an option on the site, which is currently owned by the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC).

Wilson Connelly Homes claims it has been working with City of York Council on developing a Park&Ride scheme on the site - something the council flatly denies.

"We have no idea where this suggestion has come from. We have recently been looking at options for Park&Ride in the A59 area, but this site is not involved," a City of York Council spokesman said.

Club steward Terry Kelly, who will be out of work when the club closes, said: "It's the teams I'm concerned about. Where will they go?

"We suspected a developer was involved."

Dennis Wray, chairman of the club's cricket section, said the CSSC should let them continue until the site was taken out of the green belt.

"We've just spent £800 on a new cricket square," he said.

"We still don't know whether we will be able to use it. It seems that every spare bit of land in York is being built on."

The council spokesman said: "This land is in the green belt and has never been identified by us as appropriate for housing. Our view has not altered during the course of the current green belt and local plan review.

"We cannot support any application for housing on this site although, of course, developers are entitled to buy land and put in a planning application to the council.

"If, in the event, we turn down that application, the applicants can then lodge an appeal with the government."

The CSSC was unavailable for comment.

Updated: 11:45 Tuesday, January 14, 2003