THE future of Malmesbury Youth Football Club is under threat after the owner of Malmesbury School's sports hall tripled hire costs.

The club, which has 250 youngsters on its books, has been using the hall three evenings a week for training over the winter but sessions stopped at the end of last month when the club decided it could no longer afford the cost imposed by Group 4. The weekly rate of hiring the hall has risen from £60 last year to £202.

Club Chairman James Lester said: "The kids are upset and the parents are upset. This is disastrous for the club. We have a lot of children who are not able to train. If that situation is not resolved we will have to look at the viability of the club."

The school did have two halls at its building at Filands and Corn Gaston before it moved to its one site location last Easter in a multi-million pound PFI deal. The responsibility of hiring the hall was taken over by Group 4. Before the move, the club had been using both halls for training for years without a problem.

They hoped the beneficial arrangement would continue under the new scheme and were hopeful when they were charged £43 in their first year.

But the price hike has angered parents. Erica Whatton, of Hankerton said: "I find it ludicrous that we have these massive new buildings and local people can't afford to use them."

Space has been found for the U9 team at Malmesbury Primary School and the U7s at the Cartmell Centre.

But with the only other obvious possibility for training, the Activity Zone on Bremilham Road, too expensive and unable to take block bookings, the U10 and U6 teams have nowhere else to go.