The Town Council have received notification that there was a fire at The Durker Roods Hotel on the evening of Tuesday 10th September 2024. We appreciate that this may have an effect on residents in our Township and would like to assure you of our support in this matter.
The state of the building will now need to be assessed by professionals and will be subject to a safety inspection and re-boarding up of the access points. Our emergency services teams will need to protect the building in the interim, and we would call on residents to avoid the building and remind our younger community to stay out of the building as the severity of the danger has now increased greatly.
As requested by the community, The Town Council has supported the public over the last 18 months to drive forward a change in the status of the property.
Following the Public Meeting which was held in June 2023 to discuss the situation at Durker Roods Hotel, Meltham; several actions were taken which were aimed at resolving the issue of ownership and management of the property.
Kirklees Council served notice to allow them to act to maintain the security of the property. This included removal of the fire escape and repeatedly securing the ground floor of the property
Kirklees Council have continued to seek recompense for unpaid Business Rates bills relating to the property
Our Town Mayor at that time, Cllr Richard Noon requested several professionally experienced local residents to establish the facts surrounding the status of the property and its ownership. The discussions around this matter, with the group of individuals continues to this day.
The complex nature of the shareholder ownership model has ultimately left the building in this position and must be resolved for anything to happen with the property. It is believed a minority of shareholders are restricting this problem from being resolved.
The Administrators will need to pursue a second offer to shareholders to attempt to resolve the issue, they need to be given the space to complete this process, and we will therefore await their feedback.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Brook
Clerk to the Council, on behalf of Meltham Town Council
