Fears for Knowsley riding school as land goes up for sale

Gellings Riding Centre has been at the site in Knowsley for 30 years

Campaigners fighting to save a riding school from closure said they have just days to submit a funding plan to try to keep it open.

Gellings Riding Centre has been operating on land next to the M57 in Kirkby, Knowsley, for almost 30 years but the land has been put up for sale.

The school provides riding lessons and animal therapy for people with physical or mental health conditions.

Katie Sarath, who rides there, said it gave her "independence and confidence".

"Gellings is very important to me," she said.

Ms Sarath, who is visually impaired, added: "I look after [my horse] Ted. I muck out, ride him, socialise. I do everything now where I couldn't have done before.

"I'm a lot more chatty than when I started."

Campaigners said they would need to raise almost £3m to help secure the riding centre's future.

Katie Sarath said the centre had given her 'independence and confidence'

Gellings, which is also home to a livery yard housing 40 horses, plans to submit an application for funding which would allow it to be run as a community asset, and help secure its future.

The riding centre is submitting an application through the government's Community Ownership Fund - part of a levelling up programme designed to help community groups to "take ownership of assets which are at risk of being lost".

The application must be submitted by 30 January and the group would then have six months to raise the funds needed to purchase the land.

Support worker Leanna Thompson, who attends the school with a client who has learning difficulties, said her family had used Gellings for four generations and it "would be a crime for this place to disappear".

The school provides riding lessons and animal therapy for people with physical or mental health conditions

Ms Thompson said her client had gone from being very shy to taking part in dressage competitions.

"Her family say she is a completely different person, and this is the magic of being round horses," she said.

Keith Hackett, who is leading the campaign to save the centre, said: "I'm hugely optimistic we're going to achieve a good outcome here.

"I saw people from all over Merseyside pulling as one on this. It was wonderful to see".

The BBC has contacted the landowner for comment.

Additional reporting by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.