Newspaper Clippings - Dick Butler - page 15
Image details
| OCR |
74 11 11 WADDINGTON SHEEPSKINS SWEDISH LAMB all available on BUDGET ACCOUNT for Hedley Youngs SOUTH SHIELDS NORTH SHIELDS BLYTH WHITLEY BAY - Coun . Dixon Shields Gazette and Shipping Telegraph No. 33935 ( Established 1849 ) Tuesday , September 24 , 1974 By Brian , Butler COUNCIL houses are to be built on Simon side Hall the former site of South Shields Football Club , it was confirmed today . South Tyneside Housing Committee today unanimously agreed to buy the football ground and Simonside Hall from the old club for an undisclosed sum . But councillors said that they had paid " substantially less " for it than the £ 267,000 offered by a develop ment firm in 1973 . The deal is subject to a COUNCIL HOUSE PLAN AT HALL contract being signed and the full South Tyneside Coun cil's approval . After a special meeting of the committee today , Coun . Don Dixon , its chair man , told the Gazette : " We hope to start building council houses on this site just as soon as we possibly can . One of the bugbears that has held up the build ing programme of this committee has been lack of land . " We have even made representations to the Gov ernment over the problem . Buying this site is a great boon to our house - building plans . " APPEAL The deal announced today is subject to a site survey investigation . Solici tor to the council , Mr Leo nard Rumney , said : " It appears that the devel opment firm negotiating for the site didn't have one done . " F No decision has been taken about the fate of the hall itself . South Shields and then South Tyneside Councils refused to allow the hall to be demolished and there is a public in quiry pending over the club's appeal against this Mr Rumney said that the appeal would be dropped if the deal went ahead . And Coun . Dixon stressed that whatever the fate of the hall , the planned building of coun cil houses would go ahead . £ 5m LOSS Today's news of the council deal was the first public admission that the deal between the former club and Northern Devel opments ( Holdings ) Ltd. , of Blackburn , had fallen It is Northern who put in a bid for the site in February , 1973 , and who were understood to be on the verge of signing a con tract for the land . In July the firm announced pre - tax losses of £ 5m . It is expected that about 150 houses will be built on the site excluding land on which the hall itself stands . FINAL 4p - Simonside Hall the Hall and grounds are on the left . |
|---|