POLICE have raided a former ballroom building and discovered a cannabis farm.
West Yorkshire Police said they executed a warrant at a building in Bradford Road, Brighouse this morning.
The property used to house The Ritz Ballroom, a well-known venue that was run with that name for more than 80 years.
Officers descended on the area today and discovered a cannabis farm at the premises, which includes a car park.
A police cordon has been in place for much of the day and when The Telegraph & Argus visited the scene this afternoon a presence was still there, including at least one officer and vehicle.
A spokesperson for the force said: "Police executed a warrant at premises on Bradford Road, Brighouse on Tuesday morning (30 /1) and located a cannabis farm.
"Officers remain on scene and enquiries remain ongoing."
A lady walking her children home from school said: “There’s been quite a bit of talk about what’s going on. Police have been there for a while.
"It’s quite a prominent building - I used to work there actually - so lots of people are interested”
Another woman, at a bus stop, said: “There’s been quite a bit of police activity. I’ve been wondering what’s going on."
A resident said: “It was quite surprising seeing the police and the police tape and their cars here."
History of The Ritz Ballroom building
The Ritz Ballroom was a small venue that hosted ballroom dancing, live music events and Northern Soul nights in its heyday.
It was embroiled in a legal battle back in February 2017, when lawyers from the world-famous London hotel The Ritz contacted the Brighouse venue about its name use.
But a petition was set up to save the ballroom from either closing down or having to change its name and had surpassed 2,000 signatures by the start of March that year.
The building was being run as "Venue:73" most recently - a live music space - but after making an announcement on its Facebook page on March 20, 2020 about closing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, its last post was dated April 16 that year.
It was for a monthly Motown and Soul show at the end of August 2020 and Ents24 last listed an event there for December 31, 2020.
The venue went up for sale in 2021 and then again in 2022.
A planning application was then submitted by a property company to turn it into a hand car wash in August last year.
The proposal was met with strong objections from the public and Environmental Health Services raised concerns about drainage and noise, requesting that no plant, machinery, or other equipment should be installed and/or used there until plans for sound insulation at the site were submitted and approved.
The application remains "pending consideration" at this time.
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