Site sales may fetch £1.5m for Kirklees Council

Kirklees Council could soon have its coffers boosted as £1.5m worth of its sites in north Kirklees are set to go on sale later this month.
Birstall toilets: £30k and it could be yours. (030403)Birstall toilets: £30k and it could be yours. (030403)
Birstall toilets: £30k and it could be yours. (030403)

Council-owned sites, including Westfields and Batley’s former public toilets will go to auction on February 26.

Westfields in Mirfield is the star lot, valued at £900,000-£1m.

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The building, last used as the health authority’s offices, is set in three acres of park land, and planning permission for 11 detached houses on the site has been submitted to Kirklees Council.

A plot of land at Healey Lane, Batley, is up for £350,000-£400,000. The 1.24 acre site comes with planning permission for 15 detached houses on the site, which joins on to Healey Lane school.

However, a site in Battye Street, Dewsbury, which was also up for sale with a guide price of £20,000 to £30,000 has since been withdrawn.

The former public toilets block in Market Street, Birstall is also for sale. The site is listed as 215 square metres with on site parking. A planning application has been submitted for change of use to retail with a flat above. Its guide price is £20,000-£30,000.

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The Birstall site is one of four former toilet buildings for sale in Kirklees – the list includes sites in Honley, Slaithwaite and Milnsbridge.

Overall nine sites throughout Kirklees have been listed for this month’s auction. If the guide prices are accurate, the sites could fetch a combined total of up to £1.9m.

In September 2014 the council received £826,000 from sales at an auction, adding to the £1m they got from sales that May. Dewsbury Register office, which It already has planning permission to turn into four flats sold for £104,500. Dryfield House in Batley went for £325,000.

Kirklees is in the process of selling off much of assets and buildings after central government cuts left it needing to plug a £69m black hole in its finances over the next three years.

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A council cabinet report last December stated: “The council owns a wide variety of land and property with an estimated value of more than £1 billion.

“The council has previously disposed of assets as services have declared them surplus to requirements or where a corporate benefit to the Council or the community has been identified.”

The disused sites will go for auction on Thursday, February 26 at 7pm at the Cedar Court Hotel, Ainley Top, Huddersfield.

For more information on the lots, visit www.walkersingleton.co.uk.