For sale, one greenhouse

FANCY a new greenhouse?

You’ll need a big back garden for this one though.

Kirklees Council is flogging the glasshouse from its mothballed Bradley Nurseries horticultural site.

The 3,100m square glasshouse is about the size of half a football pitch.

The price of the huge structure has not been revealed, with the council’s auctioneers Walker Singleton saying it should be agreed by “private treaty”.

The sale particulars state: “The glasshouse has been maintained to the highest of standards throughout its life and is 100% complete and fully alarmed.”

They add: “The buyer is responsible for all decommissioning and removal costs down to the slab.”

The council is aiming to sell the 4.7 acre former Bradley Nurseries site off Leeds Road for development.

It is earmarked for employment use and could be purchased by a manufacturing or retail firm.

The nurseries – which had been used by Huddersfield authorities for about 150 years – were closed in 2016 with the council saying it was cheaper to buy plants from a commercial firm.

But it was later discovered Kirklees had outsourced much of its plant growing to another local authority – Darlington Council.

Bizarrely, Darlington Council had no plant growing facilities of its own either, and supplied 23 other councils using a third party facility.

Kirklees is purchasing other plants such as hanging baskets from a private nursery near to Wakefield.

A former employee told the Examiner it was sad to see the glasshouse being sold.

He pointed out that in Leeds, the council has opened up a massive new horticultural facility.

When it was scheduled for the axe, the council said the Bradley site was not economically viable and that outsourcing plant supply would save £169,000 per year with the loss of no permanent jobs.