By Daniel Wood – KLTV Contributor
The battle to keep Huddersfield’s Camel Club open is entering a crucial phase, but Dave Biddle says he is determined to try to keep it open.
Camel Club has been the main club in Huddersfield for many years now and is the most popular club among students in the area.
However, this year has proved to be a huge blow to any club owners who have not been able to open their doors since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dave has owned the club on Byram Court, Huddersfield Town Centre, for 14 years and asked anyone who cares about the future of the club to put their hands in their pockets last month to try to keep it alive with a large crowdfunding plea of £50,000.
He and his wife had already put £100,000 of their savings towards the club since the pandemic shut it down in March.
He remains hopeful that the club will reopen in April/May next year, but there are no guarantees.
As of now, £14,000 has been raised, but the owner was hit by a surprise £13,500 tax bill, as 2019 was such a good year for the club. He had to pay an immediate £6,750 plus the other half over a six-month period.
Dave said: “I am so grateful to all the wonderful people who have helped keep Camel alive, it has been an amazing response and I can’t thank you all enough. I’ve been blown away by it.
“I’ve had a single business put £1,000 towards the target while another one in Leeds gave me £500 from a grant they have received which was brilliant.
“The new furlough scheme has been a relief too but what would really make the difference is a grant scheme which offers £2,000 a month but trying to find out if we are eligible for it has not been easy, so we’re still looking into that one.
“Hopefully, Barry Sheerman will be able to help. It’s been a very difficult time, but we’re certainly not giving up yet.”
Many people in the area, especially University Students, would hate the see the venue close down as it would seriously limit the club options once they are allowed to eventually reopen.
If anybody is interested in helping the club survive, they should go to crowdfunder.co.uk and put Crowdfunder Camel Club Huddersfield into its search engine.