CAMPAIGNERS for a new sports and community centre in Mirfield today vowed not to give up after a bid for £2m of Lottery cash failed.

Rejection is a massive blow to volunteers striving to get the project under way - but they have pledged to carry on.

The Gilder Hall Project Committee had its grant rejected by Active England, a joint scheme between the Lottery's New Opportunities Fund and Sport England.

Project administrator Geoff Walls said: "It's a disappointment, but you never know whether you are going to get a grant or not.

"It has not diminished our ambition. It will just take a bit longer."

He said bids would be made to other funding bodies and it was hoped building would start next year.

Plans featured a multi- purpose sports and events hall, a kitchen, cafe, skateboarding area, an all- weather pitch and parking.

Gilder Hall, a former malt kiln, was given to the boys of Mirfield who had lost their fathers in the First World War. It was left in trust by spinster Annie Robinson in 1923.

It has been a target for vandals over the past three decades, but since a fire eight years ago the premises have not been used.

Kirklees Council wanted to build houses on the site.

But that plan was over- ruled after an appeal.

The project committee was helped by Mirfield- born film star Patrick Stewart. It was at Gilder Hall youth club that he developed his love of acting.