A row has broken out between members of a community centre and a Morris dancing group.

It comes after Rivington Morris, a dancing group based in the area, was asked to leave Blackrod Sports and Community Centre (BSCC). 

The group, which has been going since 1977, had practised at the centre for more than 30 years. 

However, representatives from the centre, which is run as a charity, say the group 'have not used the centre on a weekly basis and haven't paid for their slots'.

Rivington Morris initially said they were "urgently looking for a new place to practice" after being asked to leave BSCC.

A spokesperson said: "The women’s team received just one month’s notice from the centre at the end of May, who said, as they have just received a major grant from the Lottery Fund, they now have to use the centre for local people and they needed the space that the women use for other activities." 

Team leader Fiona Johnston from Horwich said: “We couldn’t believe it when we received the email. We were so upset and disappointed – Rivington has practised here for more than 30 years.

"We are probably the centre’s longest standing users. Many of the team are from Bolton and we see ourselves as very much a local team."

In response, a spokesperson from BSCC said: "The Rivington Morris Dancers have had a booking at the centre for many years. However, in recent years they have not used the centre on a weekly basis.

"There were weeks and months when, although the room was booked, it was not actually used, and no payments were made for this time.

"This has meant that the centre was not able to be used by other groups on Wednesday evenings and the charity lost its income.

"In 2022/23 the Morris dancers booked the centre for every Wednesday 8pm to 10pm but only paid and used 28 weeks out of 52."

They continued: "This pattern continued into 2023/24 when they booked the centre for every Wednesday but have only used it three times since April and not at all in June and could not confirm when they would be able to return as it depended on them securing more new members to be able to afford the room hire charge.

"Given this we secured another venue for the Morris dancers in Blackrod and informed them in May that their booking would be ended from July onwards. At that time, they thanked us for putting them in touch with the new venue.

"We have secured funding to run more classes for the people of Blackrod, Horwich and Westhoughton in the evenings and at weekends. The hall has not been used on Wednesdays for some time and we have now been able to introduce four more classes for the benefit of local people.

"These sessions ensure that the building is being used to its fullest and for the benefit of our local people every single week for a variety of classes free of charge.

"And at the same time Rivington Morris Dancers have a new venue, in fact they have confirmed that they have been inundated with offers for alternative venues in addition to the one we arranged."

Margaret Watt, a team member of Rivington Morris Dancers, said: “Their cancellation policy is liberal. We can cancel at quite short notice. I’ve been over the dates with our treasurer, but both of those cancellations were very early in July and August 2022 when there was a sudden increase in Covid.

“We’ve been extremely diligent as a team, if anybody went down with it we thought we’d cancel practice.

“If there was an issue with us cancelling, they never said. They should have contacted us. We were never asked to pay for cancelled sessions.”

It was suggested the group move the sessions to a primary school in Blackrod but Mrs Watt said, after contacting the school secretary, it was deemed not to be suitable for their needs. 

Offers have been made for an alternative venue and members are currently working their way through them, and wanted to thank everyone for their support.

Regarding the allegation that ‘the hall has not been used on Wednesdays for some time’, Ms Watt said: “I have no idea what he means, we have been using it every week. There will have been the odd cancellation, but of course we have used the hall, I don’t know about that.”