Sale of Kiko's and fire station gets approved

Members of Wakefield Council’s cabinet this week gave the green light to Kiko’s and the former fire station site on Stuart Road in Pontefract being sold to Wakefield District Housing (WDH) for £100,000.

Cash generated from the sale will be used to support a masterplan to regenerate Pontefract, the council said.

This includes making Tanshelf “more attractive” and “reconnecting” the centre and Pontefract Castle.

Coun Les Shaw, cabinet member for corporate services, said: “What WDH want to do is revamp all that area and put affordable housing in.

“It will benefit Pontefract tremendously and create a great gateway to the town.”

Coun Maureen Cummings, cabinet member for environment and communities, who also chairs the Wakefield District Community Safety Partnership, said she welcomed the proposal.

She said Kiko’s was one of 37 derelict “high risk” buildings across the district. It has attracted anti-social behaviour, was at risk of being torched, and that private parties had been held inside.

A report to the meeting said the deal would be based on a “less than best price” but said the “prize of the regeneration of Pontefract is more certain through a partnership with WDH”.

In 2017, the council marketed both the fire station, which it bought for £480k in 2012, and Kiko’s, which it said had fallen into a dilapidated state, as a package.

The report said one private developer offered £355k for the sites, with plans for 19 homes.

Another offered £200k, proposing to create a commercial building to house businesses on the fire station site and demolish Kiko’s to form a landscaped public garden.