Organisation at centre of row over sale of Doncaster community building to private business goes into liquidation

Barnsley-based accountants Gibson Booth have been appointed to ‘realise the assets’ of Mexborough Community Partnership, which had been criticised by local councillors after it sold its base for £120,000 to a local private businesses, after initially having bought the site with a grant from the Coalfield Regeneration Trust (CRT).

Lawyers for the CRT, which donated £300,000 towards the cost of the purchase of Mexborough Resource Centre, had been looking into the sale.

The liquidator was appointed by the High Court of Justice’s Business and Property Courts in Leeds.

Liquidator Edward Christopher Wetton said he had only just been appointed and was in the process of setting the case up.

He said: “My duties will be to realise the assets.”

Mexborough’s ward councillors, Sean Gibbons, Bev Chapman and Andy Pickering had raised concerns about the sale to Mexborough Business Centre, owned by local businessman Peter Newman, because the building had been bought with a grant to provide a community building.

Sue Phillips, chairman of Mexborough Community Partnership, said of the appointment of the liquidator: “I can’t comment on that at the moment.”

She previously said MCP Directors felt the deal for the sale was the best they could get, and Mexborough Resource Centre would remain part of the community.

Mexborough Business Centre has been approached for comment.

A statement from Mexborough Business Centre sales and media and manager, Steve Cooper, last year, said the deal was approved by the Charities Commission.

It added the centre was used for the benefit of the residents of Mexborough, with free training courses in security, forklift work, computers, care work, and construction; and hobby courses like cake decorating.

It stated: “We were approached by Mexborough Community Partnership, that due to financial difficulties with the costs of running the resource centre, were already in the process of seeking a buyer for the centre and were in talks with a London Investment Company, a sale that could have led to the centre to being demolished, redeveloped or left empty for a number of years."

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