The Leadmill: Court battle begins over future of Sheffield venue

The Leadmill first opened in 1980 and has hosted concerts by household names including Coldplay, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys and The Stone Roses

Lawyers representing The Leadmill have claimed its landlord's intention to continue running the well-known Sheffield music venue in the same vein breaches human rights law.

The site was bought in 2017 by Electric Group, which in 2022 served an eviction notice on tenants The Leadmill Ltd.

A hearing to determine The Leadmill's future began in Leeds on Monday.

Electric Group's legal team said they would give the venue a new name and were not in breach of the law.

There would also be no reference to the venue's original existence as a flour mill in its new name, Electric Group boss Dominic Madden told the BBC.

Tom Hickman KC, representing The Leadmill Ltd, said it would be a violation of Article 1 of the Human Rights Act - protecting a person's right to property - if Electric Group was to be allowed to "exploit" the "good will" built up by the current management by running the venue in "precisely the same way".

Representing Mr Madden, Wayne Clark rejected the claim that continuing to run The Leadmill as a music venue and nightclub was a breach of human rights law, telling the hearing: "With respect to my learned friend, he's reading far too much into it."

Nicholas Trompeter KC, who also represented The Leadmill Ltd at Monday's hearing, said the terms of the current operator's lease agreement stated that it could remove any "improvements" - fixtures and fittings - made to the venue.

Alternatively, it would be entitled to compensation if they were left behind.

'A brittle shell'

The amount of fixtures and fittings that could be removed was "very extensive", he added.

They included the main dancefloor, a toilet block and an air ventilation system that could result in a new roof being required if removed.

"In the event that those fixtures and fittings are removed it's probably not an exaggeration to say that the premises would be left as a brittle shell, a bit like the old flour mill it once was," Mr Trompeter added.

A report, commissioned by The Leadmill Ltd's legal team, estimated the subsequent cost of getting the venue back up and running would be about £4.7m - a cost Mr Madden had not evidenced he could afford, Mr Trompeter said.

Representing Mr Madden, Mr Clark said his client had access to a £2m loan to pay for improvements "plus more if they needed it".

On the potential stripping of the venue, he added: "I have never encountered, ever, a wall and a roof being part of a tenant's fixtures".

In response to a claim from Mr Trompeter that Electric Group would be unable to fulfil a legal obligation to open and run the venue in a timely manner because of the "improvements" needed, Mr Clark said: "We are ready to go in and run our own business."

At the start of the hearing The Leadmill Ltd's legal team applied for an adjournment on the basis of needing more time to respond to evidence submitted by Mr Madden's legal team, and a new legal team for the venue putting forward fresh arguments.

Judge David Mohyuddin KC said he would decide whether to adjourn the hearing on Tuesday morning.