‘BULLDOZE CLUB ASAP!’
COMMUNITY leaders are calling for an arson-hit social club which is earmarked for demolition to be knocked down immediately.
Firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze which was started deliberately at Kidsgrove Working Men’s Club on Wednesday night.
The Hardingswood Road building is set to be knocked down to make way for a Lidl supermarket on the site. A replacement club will be built in nearby Meadows Road as part of the planning deal.
Former Kidsgrove mayor Kyle Robinson said: “This situation is clearly unacceptable and hopefully the police will do everything they can to ensure that anyone who goes around starting deliberate fires will be dealt with swiftly and harshly.
“The building is due to be demolished to make way for Lidl. But it is becoming a target for anti-social behaviour for some idiots. It makes sense to move the demolition forward to prevent this happening again.”
Councillor Mike Stubbs added: “It’s heartbreaking that someone has done this. It is my understanding that the sale of the building hasn’t gone through due to Covid-19 because, otherwise, I’m sure it would have been demolished by now.
“It’s a huge safety matter. I hope that the building can be demolished as soon as possible to make the area safer.”
Fellow councillor Sylvia Dymond added: “Anyone committing arson needs to find something better to do with their time. They’re putting themselves and firefighters at risk. I don’t think they realise the consequences of their actions when they set fire to things.
“The building should be taken down sooner rather than later because youngsters see it as somewhere to go in and hang out. Get it down as soon as possible.”
It had been hoped that the new Lidl store would have opened this month - 12 months after planning permission for the site was approved. But building work has yet to start.
Staffordshire Police are appealing for witnesses following the fire which broke out at 8.50pm on May
27.
A police spokesman said: “We were contacted by Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service following a fire at a derelict building on Hardingswood Road.”
■ Anyone with any information should call 101, quoting incident 719 of May 27.