 Its official opening was by the then Duke of York, who subsequently became King George VI.Earley Town Council had been in negotiation with Reading Borough Council, as successors to the Corporation of Reading, for some years now regarding the possibility of the transfer of ownership.A breakthrough in the negotiations came in 1998, when the Borough Council agreed to a 25-year lease of the old hard tennis court area on which the Town Council wished to erect a Sports and Skate Park.