BARNSLEY Council will have to buy Pogmoor Club because it has taken so long to decide whether the land it is on is needed for a new road into the town centre.
Council leader Steve Houghton admitted the authority had caused the owners’ problems in selling the former workingmen's club because it could not say which route had been chosen for link from the M1.
Land on all proposed options was safeguarded, which means restricted development until the town’s planners make up their minds.
Owners of the Pogmoor Club, which has been closed for several years, then served the council with a special notice to say the authority had ‘blighted’ the club and therefore needed to buy it.
The council challenged the blight notice and the matter was due to go before the Lands' Tribunal, but senior councillors this week agreed there was no justification in them opposing it.
A planning report put before them at cabinet on Wednesday stated their appeal would be costly and unlikely to succeed.
