PLANS to demolish Alexandra Working Men’s Club in Royston have been approved by the council’s planning board after months of speculation - after the site sold for almost £500,000 this week.

The club, on High Street, was closed for much of last year and a notice had been placed on a nearby lamppost informing locals of its forthcoming demolition.

However no application had formally been submitted to the council to demolish the site, until February.

According to a planning statement there is no intention to reopen the site and bosses behind the scheme say they could soon be in a position where they need to ‘urgently demolish’ the site.

The report said: “The Alexandra Working Men’s Club is long-term closed and has no plans to reopen.

“Unfortunately, the buildings have been of keen interest to vandals and trespassers some of which have illegally broken in and caused damage in doing so.

“Our client Samuel Smith’s Brewery have asked to progress the demolishment process before we find ourselves in a similar situation to the Bullet Sports and Social Club in Grimethorpe which we had to urgently demolish due to structurally catastrophic fire damage.

“The buildings will be taken down carefully to limit the possibility of dust, however they will also be using dust suppression methods as per the HSE guidelines.

“Our specialist demolition contractor will segregate all waste material and salvage all reusable materials to pass on to the reclamation sector for re-entry into the consumer market.

“Items such as rubble which aren’t used to grade the area will be crushed off-site and downcycled into aggregate which can enter the building sector for use.

“Items to landfill will be at a last resort.”

The plans were approved by the council’s planning board this week.

An officer report said: “There are no implications for visual amenity through the loss of the building as the building does not have any special or significant architectural merit.

“The site would be left in a safe, and level condition until detailed proposals are put forward for its re-development.

“Whilst no details regarding the re-development have been submitted at this stage, given that the site is not located within a Conservation Area, the lack of development proposals at the time is not considered unacceptable.”

Coun Caroline Makinson, who represents the Royston ward, told the Chronicle: “It’s sad to see the club go, but in light of the antisocial behaviour that has take place over recent months on the vacant property, this is a welcome step forward.

“Once the demolition work is complete, we will look forward to seeing how the future development of this land can benefit the residents and families of Royston.”

The club finally went up for auction on Tuesday.

It had been planned to go under the hammer in June but it was postponed.

A guide price of £250,000 has been set but the hammer went down on £452,500.