A long-established rifle club has been delivered a devastating blow – after being served with an eviction notice.

Windscale Rifle Club (WRC), received the “bombshell” letter from LLW Repository Ltd (LLWR) and members were left in “disbelief” at being told that use of the range would cease and the club would have “no rights of access” by the end of April.

The club, based next to the LLWR site at Drigg, is a SASRA (Sellafield Area Sports and Recreational Association) sporting sub-section and has around 70 members. It occupies an LLWR leased building known as B716 within a secure compound.

It is the second time that the club has been served with an eviction notice after the same situation arose in September 2006 when the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority took over the site. Dates to leave were given but were never followed up and a lease was eventually given.

But the club’s existing lease has now expired and members say they have been trying to arrange a new lease without any success.

They have been told that the premises are going to be demolished and LLWR is unable to offer any alternatives.

A member of the club, who does not wish to be named, said: “The most recent communication has come as a bombshell to the club and its members, which is a letter for WRC to vacate the B716 building, by April 30.

“Due to the WRC equipment located in the building its removal and having to find suitable storage, this time scale is unduly short.

“Members are quite angry in the way it’s been done. We have written to the NDA, our MPs and the parish council. We have had replies back saying they are happy for the club to stay where it is in the existing building. They can’t understand why LLWR want us to move.

“It would be such a shame for the Windscale Rifle Club to have to be dissolved after over 60 years of existence.”

Members say facilities for target rifle shooting are “non-existent” in west Cumbria, with the exception of their club. In recent months the only other commercial range at Lowmill in Cleator Moor closed.

WRC members will still be able to target shoot at a private, commercially-run range at Longtown but this is a 120-mile roundtrip for residents of Drigg.

Since the notice to vacate was first given, WRC members have tried to find a new location without success. There is an unused Ministry Of Defence Range attached to St Bees School, but this is closed due to asbestos issues.

Martin Walkingshaw, chief operating officer at Nuclear Waste Services, said: “LLW Repository Ltd has engaged in discussion with the WRA committee and the Sellafield Area Sports and Recreational Associations (SASRA) over the future of the Windscale Rifle Club for several years.

“Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to progress a new lease (or find an alternative facility away from the site).

 “A legal process is now underway and we are therefore unable to make further comment.”