COUNCIL bosses in Kirklees have said they are “in no way committed” to returning Huddersfield’s George Hotel back to accommodation for visitors and tourists.

The comment came as part of a simmering row over the purchase of the Victorian building by Kirklees Council and the fall-out resulting from the collapse of an agreement to use the hotel as the base for a National Rugby League Museum.

Huddersfield won the right to host the museum after a plan to host it in Bradford City Hall was dropped in 2020.

Kirklees Council is investigating whether increasing capacity within the George from an existing 60 rooms to more than 90 could make it attractive to operators within the hotel market.

But whilst that work is going on – and more than £2m has been received from funders to help restore the 1850s property – no final decision has been made.

The council’s director of development, Joanne Bartholomew, said there were plans to sympathetically change the George to maintain its Grade II* listed status and its Victorian grandeur.

That involves creating more rooms and to then take the notion to the hotel market at the end of March for expressions of interest.

She cautioned that the council was not yet at the point where it had a business case for a hotel operator but that the George would help sell Kirklees as a district and draw in potential visitors and tourists.

And she added: “We are in no way committed at this point to put a hotel in there.”

There was a bad-tempered exchange between senior Labour and Conservative councillors focusing once again on whether the council drew up a business case prior to buying the George Hotel for £1.8m.

Clr John Taylor (Con, Kirkburton) said Labour had failed to provide a definitive answer.

He said opposition groups had not been kept informed, accused the administration of lacking transparency, and said trust had been “broken”.

Clr Peter McBride (Lab, Dalton) said Tories were embroiled in a back-and-forth argument about a business case for one element of a massive programme budgeted to cost £210m in total.

He said expert consultants were bringing forward recommendations to be discussed by the decision-making Cabinet.

“It isn’t to say, ‘This is the final word’. It is a significant step.

“I didn’t believe for a moment that I or the Cabinet as a whole were sufficiently competent to do this themselves. They needed the benefit of skilled guidance. And you’ve got some of the best in the country.

“I’m prepared to be guided by them and I think what you need to do is have a little faith.”