THE future of a debt-ridden community centre is still hanging in the balance.

Shutters have been down at the DRAM (Dalton Rawthorpe and Moldgreen) Centre for much of the last week.

As reported earlier this month, the centre owes at least £110,000 in bills and rent.

Its gas supply was cut off two weeks ago.

Officially the centre remains open and the bar has been serving customers.

Moldgreen Rugby Club is still using it for training and matches.

John Fletcher, Kirklees Council’s assistant head of culture and leisure services, said the centre was scaling down its operation.

He added: “The council is very concerned to try to help.

“We are trying to protect community use of a facility that is a very useful and important building for that area.”

The DRAM Centre, on Ridgeway in Dalton, cost £1.6m to build and opened in 2004 on a site used by the rugby club.

It was funded by Sport England, an initiative called the DRAM regeneration programme, Lottery money and Kirklees Council, but was run independently.

It has a range of sporting facilities as well as function rooms and bars.

It was hoped the centre would provide a facility for community, sports and social events, as well as the rugby club.

But the centre has been under-used and there have been accusations that the community has been marginalised.

Dalton councillor Roger Battye claimed the rugby club had not paid for using the centre when other organisations had.

He said the club had treated the DRAM Centre as an exclusive club.

But Brian Tracey, chairman of the junior section of the rugby club, said that was unfair.

According to Mr Tracey, under an agreement drawn up when the DRAM Centre committee was formed, 30% of bar profits would go to the club up to a maximum of £10,000 a year.

The club never received any money, so it was agreed that, until the centre was in profit, the club would not pay for using it.

Mr Tracey said the centre’s closure would be a “disaster” for the club and he hoped it would be saved for the whole community.

“We have been accused of being an exclusive club, but that’s not true,” he said.

“The fact is the building’s too much for us to run on our own. We have never said we don’t want the community to be up there, because they need to be.

“It has been badly run and no-one has gone out to the community and encouraged them to use it. There has been a lot of apathy.

“We need to get everybody back around the table, to form a new, committed, properly elected committee.”