IT was a game of two halves for footballers in Minehead this week as their fixture list came back on track but uncertainty continued over the long-term use of buildings at their Irnham Road ground.

The town's football club was forced to cancel last Saturday's reserve team game after the buildings were closed following the discovery of potentially deadly asbestos.

An uneasy truce was agreed between the club and Minehead Town Council - which owns the ground and buildings - at a meeting on Wednesday night that will allow the changing rooms to come back into use.

But councillors have warned that the cost of dealing with the asbestos will be massive and could have an impact on future plans for the ground.

A survey of the site has revealed asbestos in many parts of the social club building, including dust in most of the voids above the ceiling panels.

The ceiling panels themselves are constructed of asbestos and some are damaged.

And in the function room, Armosite debris on top of the suspended ceiling tiles has been identified as "high risk of being accessed during normal occupation".

In September the council backed the findings of a feasibility study to demolish the buildings and replace them with a new purpose-built community sports centre.

It planned to set up temporary modular facilities to allow the club to continue to operate until the new development was up and running.

More than 25 club members and supporters packed the council chamber on Wednesday to demonstrate their concern over the impact of the asbestos problems and to vent their anger at a claimed lack of dialogue with the council.

The club had been told just 48 hours before last weekend's fixtures that experts had deemed the changing rooms were safe to use, but confusion over receiving the information in writing meant the games remained cancelled.

The club has now been given an assurance that it will receive a copy of the full asbestos report drawn up by Somerset Scientific Services, on which the decision to close the buildings was based.

Expert advice will also be sought to see if the social club building can be safely accessed to allow the club to switch its floodlights on and off.

Cllr Mandy Chilcott said she hoped that, when the club had digested the contents of the report, it would appreciate the situation councillors faced.

"I think you will be surprised when you see the extent of the problems," she said.

"It was a huge shock to us, a great disappointment and a major step backwards."

Cllr Chilcott, who is chairman of the council's finance and staffing committee, said the authority had to be extremely cautious about what it committed to because at the moment it had no clue what the cost of dealing with the asbestos would be.

Club officials had earlier told councillors they felt they had been sidelined by not being included in discussions over the future of the ground over recent months.

Chairman Brian Walder said the club was facing a range of options following the asbestos discovery, from finding a workable solution for the continued use of the changing rooms, to withdrawing from competitive games or even closing the club which had been in existence since 1889.

And general secretary John Batt said the club had been trying to work with the council for the last 18 months but requested meetings had failed to take place.

He said he believed the asbestos issues could be managed as long as the club was able to see the report.

Mr Batt said the club had a duty of care to players, particularly the youth sides.

Councillors even heard a passionate plea from 11-year-old footballer Josh Rushton who said he had been playing since he was five and it would be unfair if he and his friends could not continue with the sport.

Cllr Jenny Lennon-Wood, who chairs the newly established Irnham Road Ground Working Group, looking at the future redevelopment of the site, insisted there had been no attempt to exclude the club.

She said the working group had only met for the first time in November and consultations with the club would have begun very shortly had it not been for the asbestos problems.

She said nobody had expected the results of the survey to be so serious and the working group had thought it would now be looking at funding streams for the hoped-for community sports centre and involving potential users.

"We are all absolutely gutted," she said.

Cllr Doug Ross, who is also a member of the working group, said when he read the report on the asbestos he was "gobsmacked".

"We had no idea it was so bad - it was a real shock."

He said that in the longer term, the council was facing a major problem in dealing with the asbestos.

"We have to be very careful what we commit ourselves to beyond removing the asbestos.

"We all want football to continue on this site and we hope it will also be used by other people to engage in sports and leisure activities."

The council has made it clear that the recreation ground itself, the car park and surrounding area are safe for the public to use and are not affected by the asbestos discovery.