Collapsed building in Kirkgate

[warringtonrhino]

A council could spend up to £700,000 on emergency repair works following the collapse of a city centre building.

Leeds City Council is planning to serve an urgent works notice on the owner of dilapidated buildings on Kirkgate, which caved in on 12 April.

The notice would give the council the authority to carry out structural repairs on the buildings, and recover the costs if the company failed to carry out the work.

The local authority said it was keen to press ahead with the regeneration work as the ongoing road closure was having a negative impact on the area.

The council said it had asked City Fusion Ltd, which owns numbers 84 and 85, to carry out emergency structural works to prevent further collapses, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The company was also asked to carry out similar works on numbers 86 and 87 - which were hit by fire in 2023 - and numbers 88, 89 and 91.

The council said City Fusion Ltd had "so far declined to do the requested work”

[tilly]

Im all for saving old buildings in the city center but for the life of me i cant see any historical value in this row of shops.Could be something underhand going on the land is worth a small fortune, i bet they have been told they can not demolish them and are being held to ransom i wait to see what happens.

[Jann]

Probably going to clear the land and build student flats!

[LS1]

Im all for saving old buildings in the city center but for the life of me i cant see any historical value in this row of shops.Could be something underhand going on the land is worth a small fortune, i bet they have been told they can not demolish them and are being held to ransom i wait to see what happens.

I read somewhere that they're the oldest 18th century continuous run of shops that are left in Leeds, so it's probably that. Kirkgate is after all very old so it might not be wrong.

[tyke bhoy]

Hi Jann, I know it was probably tongue in cheek but completely the wrong side of Leeds City Centre for Student flats, plus I doubt they'd get planning permission for anything that would greatly overshadow the Corn Exchange.

Looking at the last accounts for City Fusion (to March 23) https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history it wouldn't look like they have the wherewhithall to fund the repairs. Granted they have "Investment property" values in the accounts at just over £10million but they have loans of over £11m to pay. They are owed £2m+ possibly mainly by a myriad of subsidiary/related companies. It looks like very little in the way of liquid assets

[Jann]

Hi tyke bhoy ! Yes it’s a shame these buildings are in such a dangerous state while other buildings that are old get the repairs they require , the ones that collapsed can’t have had any work done on them for years now , we’ll just have to see what happens to this area in the future , thank you for the information about the buildings

[mhoulden]

The directors of City Fusion own a lot of other property development companies. I'm not sure if it's a form of land banking or if they're trying to make money by doing as little as possible.

[tyke bhoy]

For anybody with insomnia and fancying a cure.
Planning Permission documentation (36) for a recent approval on what is considered 1 building despite 81-89 and 91 Kirkgate
https://publicaccess.leeds.gov.uk/onlin ... KZ6JBMI600

[Leodian]

For anybody with insomnia and fancying a cure.
Planning Permission documentation (36) for a recent approval on what is considered 1 building despite 81-89 and 91 Kirkgate
https://publicaccess.leeds.gov.uk/onlin ... KZ6JBMI600

Thanks for that link tyke bhoy.
I've only had a quick look at some of its links in which I found the mentions of Pine Court interesting. References are made to it seemingly being a lost public right of way. I have never known it as a through route as it was always closed off. Whenever I peeked through its gates Pine Court seemed to be a wheelie bin store so the gates must be opened at times for the bins to be collected/returned, presumably only from Kirkgate.

[buffaloskinner]

Take a look at this post from 2019, there are a few pics of Pine Court when it was a walkthrough

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6646

I have walked through Pine Court many times, I cannot recall the year it was closed off though