A DANCE group in Billericay is facing closure after 47 years due to a lack of dancers.

Denis Hart, a 92-year-old DJ is appealing for new members to join the Billericay dancing club he has run continuously with his wife since 1972.

He lives with his wife and longtime dance partner Thora Hart in Atridge Close, Billericay, set up the club in partnership with Venezuelan musician Edmundo Ros, who became a British household name in the forties and fifties.

However over the past 47 years the membership at the club, which plays ballroom, Latin, sequence, and jive music, has dwindled from 80 members to eight.

Denis said: "If we were a a patient in a hospital, we would be on life support. I'm having to use my own savings to keep paying the rent, and we've only gone ahead in five weeks this year.

"It will be such a shame if we have to close before getting to 50 years. I fear that if it goes I'll have no interests left. I just don't know where all the dancers have gone."

The club meets every Wednesday night during school term times at Buttsbury Primary School, Perry Street, Billericay, from 8-10pm, with doors opening at 7.30pm.

Membership costs £1 for the year, with entry priced at £5 per session, including free parking on site and refreshments.