Retired management accountant Roger Haycock was candid about the financial problems facing Manningham Ward Labour Club on Bull Royd Lane, off Allerton Road.

He said: “Currently, I estimate we need to raise £3,085 a week to pay the bills, plus another £1,800 weekly beer bill. Over the last 21 weeks, bar takings have averaged £4,275 a week. In cash we are losing £600 a week.”

That might not seem too bad for a club which claims a membership of about 750. Members pay £10 a year for full membership, with pensioners paying £6.50.

Later, however, when we were joined by club secretary Allan Lynn and club member Trevor Sugden, Mr Haycock disclosed that the club also owes 19 creditors a total of £28,000 and Her Majesty’s Government about £27,000 in VAT and PAYE.

“The membership has lost confidence in the club. A lot of rumour-mongering by disgruntled members is putting off people coming to the club,” he added.

A view endorsed by Allan and Trevor, and which had been aired the previous Sunday at an Emergency General Meeting attended by up to 40 club members.

One thing that came out of that lively but acrimonious meeting was general agreement that the club needed to make its plight more widely known in the hope that the public would rally round and save the club from going under.

It actually did go under during the 2001 rioting, being fire-bombed and burned out on its site at Whetley Lane and Carlisle Road.

A bigger purpose-built club – with concert room, bar lounge and games room – opened on council-owned land on Bull Royd Lane in 2006.

But in the last six years the club, like other working men’s clubs, has struggled.

Last year a bailiff walked in demanding payment of a £1,700 bill. He threatened to remove the tables and chairs from the bar and concert room.

The decline of these clubs has been going on for decades according to George Dawson, president of the Club & Institute Union – the body to which the New Ward club is affiliated.

The CIU used to have 4,000 members. By June 2010 that had shrunk to 2,200. The 2007 ban on smoking in public places and the rising cost of beer are additional factors in the ailing working men’s club culture.

Caroline Street Social Club in Saltaire left the CIU in 2010. Club steward Peter Whitehead said membership was costing the club about £1,700 and times were hard.

Since then the club seems to have successfully adapted to changing circumstances by putting on comedy nights and concerts, often with performers from America.

Three years ago, Bingley and District Working Men’s Club in York Place reported a decline in membership, which was attributed to the smoking ban and escalating cost of beer.

East Bowling Unity Club in Leicester Street has 1,000 members. In October this year club secretary John Bruce told the T&A the club needed a more flexible licence from Bradford Council to be able to hire out its function room more than a dozen times a year. Making better use of its concert room, bar and games room is one of the problems facing Manningham Labour Club.

Even the title is a misnomer because the club is not party political according to club secretary Allan.

Roger Haycock says: “The only alternative to social clubs is the pub, and pubs can be very rowdy and even intimidating to elderly people.

“But in a social club such as ours, they can come in and feel secure.”

Club member Trevor says: “Dinosaurs die out because they don’t adapt. We know we’ve got to adapt,”

But adapting to attract new members risks discomforting the Manningham club’s established members, some of whom reportedly like the idea of putting on Friday night concert shows, but dislike the idea of paying £5 on the door to get in.

Next Friday, CIU President George Dawson is scheduled to meet the Manningham Labour Club’s five-strong committee to assess the club’s plight for himself.

I left the three men on the steps of the club, talking about the possibility of table top sales at £5 a table and a fundraising concert for the club. The sun was shining, but the day was cold.

It seemed an apt image for the club’s future, for the future of all working men’s clubs trying to reinvent themselves in a bleak economic climate.