Members angry over bar closure at Birkenhead’s Lauries Centre

Dec 2 2009 by Matt Hurst, Birkenhead News

Members angry over bar closure at Birkenhead’s Lauries Centre

THE members bar at the Lauries Centre closed on Monday, leaving regulars unhappy, but manager Danny Doyle says pleas should have been made earlier.

Mr Doyle told the News the facility was losing “thousands a week” and its inability to “wash its own face” was threatening the other services available at the centre.

But members say the bar is “the only place to go for a quiet drink with nice people”.

Around 35 members paid £5 a year to gain access, and signs were put up in the bar a month ago warning of impending closure.

Danny says, despite the numbers on the members’ list, that the bar “has never been well supported”.

He pointed out an occasion last year when Everton played Liverpool in the FA Cup and the bar, which subscribes to Sky television, was attended by only two people while a nearby pub was full to the rafters.

This despite subsidies paid by the Lauries, based on Conway Street in Birkenhead, on drinks served.

But members say the finances have been mishandled, that they would have been willing to pay more in subs if it meant the difference between staying open and closing, and that often renewal charges were not pursued – losing the centre money.