By Jenny Barwise

Last updated at 12:27, Friday, 05 October 2012

A Workington club which has been empty for more than two years has been sold ahead of it going under the hammer.

The former Workington Labour Club

Workington Labour Club, also known as the William Street Club, was due to be up for auction yesterday afternoon, with a guide price of £45,000.

But a buyer came forward before the auction date and bought the premises.

The club has had a troubled past. Allerdale council ordered the William Street Club to close two years ago after police were called to the premises 20 times in six months, following reports of assault, loud music and street brawls.

The club appealed against the licensing panel’s ruling to have its licence revoked, but the appeal was refused. Since then, the club has been empty and was due to go under the hammer with Auction House Cumbria at Carlisle Racecourse yesterday.

But on the company’s website, which stated the club could offer development potential for a variety of uses including residential, it said that it had been sold prior to the auction. Nobody from Auction House Cumbria was available to comment on the sale and it is unknown who the buyer is.

The club was run as The William Street Private Members Club Ltd from October 2008 and had five different premises supervisors in its two years.

Before that it was Workington Labour Club, but that closed in 2008.

When the club was shut down police officers instrumental in closing it down were given a special reward for their work.

Police Constable Lorraine Murphy and Ken Sharples, Allerdale Council’s legal officer, were both awarded a certificate of merit for helping to stop antisocial behaviour and drunken violence ruining the lives of residents living by the club.

At the time superintendent Andy Towler said that it was one of the “best pieces of licensing work he’d seen – if not the best.”

First published at 11:29, Friday, 05 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk