Welfare fears

Concern is mounting for the future of the derelict Ollerton and Bevercotes Miners’ Welfare.

The club closed in February last year after the trust that ran it decided it would be too expensive to repair and not financially viable to keep it open.

The building, on Whinney Lane, has since been boarded up after being vandalised and set alight several times.

The Mayor of Ollerton and Boughton, Mrs Irene Miller, said: “Not only is it a fire hazard, it is an eyesore. I feel so sorry for the people who live near it.”

An Ollerton and Boughton town councillor, Mr Terry Bell, said: “We get regular complaints.

“We have done our best as a council to get in touch with all involved and it is no good.”

He said the most recent attack was on the bowls pavilion.

Mr Bell said: “It was trashed inside. The St John Ambulance that shared the building have thrown in the towel because of it and gone to Edwinstowe so we have not got a St John Ambulance in the area, which is sad.”

He said the local Safer Neighbourhood Group had made it their top priority and the police regular patrol the site.

Mrs Miller said the council had put in an offer to buy the welfare and its sports pitches from the administrator, Auker Rhodes, of Bradford, and tried to contact the company several times without success.

She said: “Those people in Leeds have got all the control but they are not bothered about it. It is just a building to them — it doesn’t matter what it represents to the village.

“We have just got to keep pursuing it. We are not giving up. Nobody is giving up.”

Auker Rhodes declined to comment.