Cash-strapped Doncaster Council sells off assets to raise more than £800, 000

The authority raised a total of £829, 000 by selling a former training and community centre, youth club and two council depots at a packed auction held at the Keepmoat Stadium.

This comes after the authority revealed earlier this year it has to make around £23.5 million cuts in 2017/18, increasing to £66.8m a year by 2021, due to 'Government grant cuts, rising demand and inflation'.

A Doncaster Council spokesperson said funding raised from the asset sales will go into the General Fund Capital Receipts Programme which will be used to "invest in major projects that support job creation, skills, housing, school buildings, roads, town centre regeneration and support for the disabled and elderly."

The top seller on the day was paid for The Terrace in Conisbrough, a former community and training centre, which went for £249, 000.

The detached Victorian-era villa occupies a site of nearly 2.5 acres and went under the hammer for far higher than the guide price of £150-£175, 000. There are plans to turn it into a care home.

A former youth centre in Oswin Avenue, Balby, was sold for £175,000 to the Chinese Christian Church. A former council depot on the same road was sold for £180, 000 to a manufacturer and distributor of contact lenses.

Another former council depot in Wyndthorpe Hall, Dunsville, sold for £225,000.

James Vandenbrook, head of auction for Doncaster-based Regional Property Auctioneers, said: "There was a lot of interest in The Terrace before the sale because of the building’s size, versatility and location – next to Conisbrough Castle. It is certainly ideal for the purchaser’s preferred use as a care home.

“The properties from Doncaster Council were particularly attractive because they were offered with keen guide prices. That can give bidders the opportunity to snap up a bargain but it can also encourage lively competition, which is what happened here in producing some good prices."