A LANDMARK community building in Ashton on Mersey has closed its doors - leaving half a dozen groups without a base.

The trustees of Brooks Institute decided at a crunch meeting to shut the building immediately on health and safety grounds.

They took the drastic action after considering two reports - one a state of the building assessment and the other an electrical report.

The bombshell decision has hit groups whose members age in range from tots to pensioners. Organisations who use the nineteenth century building on Carrington Lane include Ashton on Mersey Playgroup, a pensioners' club, flower club, townswomen's guild, brownies and Sale Art Club.

The news was broken to them in a letter from Brooks Institute trustees' secretary, Peter Ribbon, that said: "There was a meeting of the trustees of the Brooks Institute when reports were considered as to the condition of the building.

"As a result I am sorry to have to tell you that, on health and safety grounds, it was decided to close the building immediately.

"A number of organisations have used Brooks Institute for many years and it is with the greatest possible regret that the trustees have taken this decision. They are also sorry that it has not been possible to give you more notice of the closure."

Trustees' chairman, John Golding, told SAM: "We will now consider what action can or should be taken - after consultation with the Charities Commission and Trafford Borough Council."

Cllr Jane Baugh, the cabinet member for youth, arts and leisure, says: "We are very concerned to hear this news and will be trying to accommodate all the groups affected.

"It is unfortunate we were not given more notice this was going to happen."

Altrincham MP Sir William Cunliffe Brooks paid for the building, which was opened in 1887 to celebrate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria.

It is the second community hall to be lost in Sale recently. The council has put Bartram Finch Community Hall, on Marsland Road, up for sale because the cost of repairing the building is too high. The poor condition of the 1870s hall has meant it has not been used for the past three years.

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