Campaigners hope club can be made community asset

Highcliffe Club was closed in April after the committee decided to sell the building

Campaigners fighting to save a 90-year-old social club are hoping to have it listed as a community asset to try and ensure its survival.

Highcliffe Club, on Highcliffe Drive in the Greystones area of Sheffield, shut its doors in April after the majority of trustees voted to close and sell it.

The proposal was opposed by a minority of trustees and prompted 700 people to sign a petition to save it.

The BBC has approached the club's committee for comment.

In total, 60 club members voted to close the club earlier this year with 21 voting to keep it open.

If it were sold, then all members would receive a share of the proceeds.

In an email sent to club members at the end of May, the committee stated: "We have received an offer of £660,000, this is for the full plot, the house, the club and the land.

"The committee had unanimously agreed to accept the offer on your behalf."

The club's committee has accepted an offer for the building

Louise Cooper, 69, is one of those members opposing the sale.

"I want to keep it open as a community venue," she said.

"This is important to the local community."

If the local authority chose to list the club as an asset of community value, it would mean a community group would be offered a window of time to get organised and possibly table a bid before the market was opened to other parties.

The owner does not need to accept the bid.

"It could possibly halt the sale for six months and give us a chance to get somebody who would be interested in buying it and keeping it open," Ms Cooper said.