York Arts Arena is quitting the city's De Grey Rooms, throwing another question mark over the future of the historic building.

The arts group had breathed new life into the elegant, but under-used property in St Leonard's Place by using it as a venue for music and drama over the past couple of years.

The arena, a forum for 60 York-based arts groups and 160 individual artists, announced in October 1998 that the De Grey Rooms would become a space for performances and workshops.

It wanted to provide a stage for talent from the city and further afield.

Since then, it has been used for everything from guitar recitals and rock and jazz concerts to art shows and a "Pink" ball for homosexuals.

But uncertainty has surrounded the arena's future tenure of the rooms for some months, while protracted negotiations were conducted with the owners City of York Council.

Earlier this week the arena decided to withdraw from the building following a meeting with the council.

"We have not been able to come to a satisfactory agreement with City of York Council for the continued use of the building," said administrator Robert Ward.

He said the arrangements offered by the local authority had been too "short-term" to enable the forum to plan ahead properly.

Forum chairman Ian Cooke said the venue had been dogged by problems caused by a lack of disabled access.

This had made it difficult to apply for funding from a range of organisations, and the costs of providing disabled access had simply been prohibitive.

Now the arena would revert to becoming more of a "networking organisation" for the arts in York, helping organisations find different venues for different events.

A City of York Council spokesman said that working to the Government's asset management plan meant that activities and use at all the authority's buildings were under regular review.

"The De Grey Rooms is currently under-used and York Arts Arena only uses part of the property.

"Because we are obliged to look at more effective uses for the building, we cannot offer anything but a short lease because otherwise we may be shutting off other options for the building's future use."

Updated: 13:36 Thursday, June 07, 2001