Club News
In its ongoing efforts to address a £47m deficit, cash-strapped Kirklees Council is looking to dispose of more than 50 assets including Primrose Hill Liberal Bowling Club.
The club is on the list of 59 land sites and properties that Kirklees Council are looking to dispose of to raise £4million to help fill a gap in their finances in this financial year.
Despite what the listing states the only part that Kirklees Council own is the bowling green and this is currently leased to the club. The clubhouse is already owned by the club.
I understand that Primrose Hill Club are in discussions with Kirklees Council about purchasing the green and have been trying to progress a sales agreement with them since October 2022. There now appears to more urgency on Kirklees Council's part in progressing this matter. Apart from the park greens I didn't know that Kirklees owned any local bowling club facilities and/or greens.
How many more bowling clubs are owned by Kirklees Council? How many clubs' futures are uncertain because of Kirklees Council's financial plight?
Also on that list of 59 sites for disposal are Scholes Cricket Club, Netherton Village Hall, the former Almondbury Library and Fartown Village Hall. Full list
For a Council the size of Kirklees I would have expected a much bigger list. Most of these sites and buildings are on the small side. Experience tells me that it’s much easier to sell land with the Council having the say on planning permission than to sell empty old buildings which may need expensive repairs and/ or modernisation costs.
I wonder how they’ve tackled this - asked Councillors for thoughts of potential sales in their constituencys? Asked Chief Officers if they have surplus land or buildings? If so, both are a too narrow an approach. .
Better to have started looking at the bigger picture with EVERY building and piece of land they own whether occupied or not with…
I’m not totally familiar with the green and surrounding area. Is the green gridlocked , in which case access could be a problem plus the size of a bowling green is not very big for eg a developer and so may not attract many bids / or bids of any size. Surely it would be better for the Council to pursue a sale to the bowling Club.
Hope the Club survives the current problems.
Philip of LINDLEY
When times are financially difficult the Council must consider all options including the sale of unused buildings. An easier source of income from sales of assets is to consider selling pieces of land particularly ransom strips which releases, for development , land owned by others. Ransom strips sell for high prices.
The downside of the Council selling assets like these is that they can only use the income once to finance ongoing expenditure and so it is short term as they will have to repeat the exercise in future years to finance the ongoing expenditure.
As a principle, they should be using this income to finance one off expenditure.
Sorry, End of lecture !!
Philip of LINDLEY