A YORK dance club is worried it may lose the venue for its annual competition when the Barbican is sold.

The 68 Club, of Monkton Road, York, hosts a competition for disco dancers from youth organisations across the country. About 400 young people aged up to 25 travel to York for the contest annually. This year's event took place last Sunday.

The scale of the contest means that the club has to hire the whole Barbican centre for the day, using the auditorium for the actual competitions and the sports facilities for the dancers to change into their costumes.

City of York Council put the Barbican centre up for sale in July last year after admitting the council could no longer afford to fund it. Prospective developers have been told they must include a swimming pool and an auditorium in their plans for the centre but the sports facilities may well be closed.

It is also possible that developers will demolish the original building and build a new one.

Dance leader Karen Brooksbank, said: "This is our third year at the Barbican. It is the only venue in York big enough. It would be such a shame if we could no longer hold our competition there."

About 50 young people are members at the club, whose dancers travel to disco-dancing competitions all over the UK.

Karen said the group owed it to the other clubs to carry on hosting a competition in York. If they cannot use the Barbican in the future, the club intends to search for another venue.

A spokesman for City of York Council said: "We are currently awaiting new proposals from the five shortlisted bidders selected from the original round of bids.

"However, it is too early to speculate on what form the proposals will take and whether any events would have to be suspended during the re-development phase.

"Our timetable is based around starting any re-development, at the earliest, next year; and completion in 2005. However, any work will only begin after public consultation over the proposals in the summer and clearly groups like this can get involved in that process."

Updated: 11:01 Friday, March 22, 2002