THE operators of the former Rosyth Civil Service Sports Club have said the future of the facility is still to be decided.

The Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) have put out a renewed call for any interested parties to come forward after a "phenomenal" response to its initial appeal.

The decision to close the club was made in January but the facility at Castle Road has potential for wider public use and could yet provide a bright future for the town.

Back in February, the Press reported the organisation's hopes that, if viable, the club could be used by the local community to access facilities that promote health, wellbeing and physical activity, as well as enabling the activities for CSSC members to be retained.

Last week, we reported local councillor Tony Orton's comments that a new home for Rosyth FC – along with a training facility for Dunfermline Athletic – could be created.

At a meeting of Rosyth Community Council, he said Fife Council and local councillors had put forward a case to the civil service sports association so say they would support the use of that land for the Rosyth Football Club in particular but also associated with Dunfermline Athletic

However CSSC group operations director Wendy Eley stressed to the Press that no decision has been made and welcomed any additional expressions of interest.

"The interest has been phenomenal and I am really grateful to everybody that has emailed. We are now making a final call for any further expressions of interest.

"Because the response has been so great, we are bringing in external support to help. We are planning to hand it over to an external party so they can take forward the discussions with individuals.

"We are really grateful to everyone who has expressed an interest. Hopefully there are some exciting opportunities and we can make it work.

"I want to try and make the business case work. The more people come forward – it is a big building with great potential and big function rooms.

"We are excited to see where this can take us but we cannot yet make a commitment that it will definitely stay open."

Mrs Eley said they didn't have a time scale but said some community engagement was also likely to take place in the coming months and she hoped a decision could be made by the summer.

Anyone wanting to express an interest can do so by emailing rosythcommunityclub@cssc.co.uk.

One West Fife football club has expressed its concern at the proposals outline by Cllr Orton last week.

Inverkeithing United Chairperson Jamie Kinnear contacted the Press to confirm that they had been based at the Civil Service grounds since they reformed in 2017.

"Inverkeithing United FC are a SFA Quality Accredited grassroots football club with over 150 players aged between 5-15 years and 30 volunteers. We have 10 teams participating in both Fife and Edinburgh Association football leagues," he said.

"We have been using the Civil Service Sports Club as our home for four years now and despite the club being closed due to Covid-19, we are still using the grounds as our base for all of our grassroots football teams.

"We hope to hear from Rosyth FC and Dunfermline Athletic about their plans to work with us in the near future."