Council seizes landmark town centre building in legal purchase action

The authority is the owner of the landmark building after it made a compulsory purchase order against the development company that had owned it since 2005.

It began legal proceedings to protect the building from further decay.

Pioneer House was built for Dewsbury Pioneers Industrial Society, a co-operative society, as a base from which to sell its produce and wares.

Over the years the building, which is one of the largest and most recognisable in the town, has been home to a wide variety of tenants more recently including a theatre, cinema, library, french polishers, butchers, cobblers, and a restaurant.

Stayton Developments became the owner in 2005, and announced plans for the building to be the centrepiece of a flagship regeneration scheme it was preparing for the town. However, the repairs and redevelopment of Pioneer and the wider town centre scheme were not progressed and the building deteriorated rapidly.

Kirklees Council’s Cabinet member for regeneration and housing, David Sheard, said: “Our first priority is to carry out urgent repairs to protect the building from further decay, by making it safe and watertight.

“Many people in this town remember Pioneer House in its heyday and, while the council has the resources to repair the building, we must work closely with other individuals and organisations to bring it back into full occupation and use.”

One of the project partners is the Prince’s Regeneration Trust (PRT), who contacted the council after hearing about the increasingly poor state of the building. The trust specialises in heritage-led regeneration, working with communities across the UK to ensure that important historic buildings at risk of demolition and decay are preserved, regenerated and re-used.