Online campaign to save '˜country's oldest' working men's club in Leeds

ASBESTOS: The deadly material was found in the club.

Owners of the Holbeck Social Club are facing an uphill struggle to keep their doors open after they were slapped with a £28,000 bill to remove the deadly material.

They have now set up a JustGiving fundrasing page and are calling for donations from locals.

The club first opened in 1871, before moving to its current site on Jenkinson Lawn, off Holbeck Moor Road, in 1877.

The owners plan to hold a big 140th anniversary celebration next year.

But a recent survey of the building found asbestos in the cellar with some quotes to remove it being as high as £50,000.

Asbestos was a common building material until the 1990s, but has since been linked with a range of serious lung and respiratory diseases, and is no longer used.

This is not the first time the club has found itself in financial difficulty.

In 2012 it was saved by a volunteer-led take-over after it fell into serious debt.

However since then it has thrived with a growing active membership of more than 300 people.

The club hopes to raise £10,000 to keep its doors open with donators leaving messages of support on the website.

One says: “Four generations of my family have used this club over the past 140 years,

“I would not like to see it close after all the hard work that has been done over the last four years.”

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