FORMER leisure club members and villagers have appealed to its owners to take up offers of re-opening it.

Ardleigh Hall Leisure Club closed in August last year. It had about 350 members and 12 staff.

It had been a base for many upand- coming squash players, small businesses and village groups.

Residents set up the Ardleigh Hall Fall Outs group in a bid to take over the now overgrown site in Dedham Road, estimated to be worth £3million.

They claim owners Ardleigh Hall LLP have rebuffed two approaches by companies interested in leasing the site and running a sports club there.

The company is made of up three shareholders, the largest of which is Colchester property developer Vaughan and Blyth.

A spokesman for Vaughan and Blyth said no interested parties were looking to take over the site.

A spokesman for Ardleigh Hall Fall Outs asked the shareholders to take action.

He said: “We are appealing to Vaughan and Blyth to reconsider its current path and to allow one of the interested parties to take up the lease and get this club back up and running.

“We cannot understand why the offers on the table have not been accepted as we have met with the interested parties, who both had positive business plans.

“Our only assumption can be that Vaughan and Blyth are planning further housing and have no real intention of letting the property, despite their agent’s letting board at the front of the property.

“With the plans for more housing already agreed for Ardleigh, this type of facility would be even more in demand.

“For the sake of the young people, villagers, the world-famous squash club, hundreds of exmembers and the wider community, we appeal to them to reconsider that course of action.”

A Vaughan and Blyth spokesman said: “It has been on the market for some time and we have no interested parties looking to take over the rental site.”