THE dream of an ice-rink complex in Selby has been dashed after the company said it had “closed the book” on the project.

Mike Petrouis, who operates ice rinks under the names of Silver Blade or Planet Ice, said he had had no contact with Selby District Council for months.

He said: “From what I understand we’ve closed the book on it. We never heard anything so we’ve decided to close the file. We have moved no further forward in the last nine months. At the end of the day, if these things are to happen the very basic point is that the council has to want to do it.”

But Mr Petrouis’ claims were strongly denied by Coun Mark Crane, leader of Selby District Council.

Coun Crane said: “We have been in touch with the company involved on a number of occasions and we will continue to try to get a dialogue with them. As far as we were concerned we had done everything they had asked for from us and we were in a position where we were waiting for them to put the plans in.”

Coun Crane said it was still the case that the council wanted to bring an ice rink and cinema to the town.

He added: “I personally pledge to continue to try to work with them or any other company that is interested to make the cinema scheme happen.”

Selby and Leeds had been in a two-horse race to get an ice rink until last August when Mr Petrouis told The Press that both places would be getting a rink – Leeds would have a full-size rink while Selby’s would be three-quarter size and probably sited next to Abbey Leisure Centre.

The announcement led to speculation that it could be a huge draw for visitors to the town with no other similar facility for nearby.

Mr Petrouis said that while the Selby rink appeared to be dead in the water, the Leeds rink was going ahead as planned.