A FORMER Addingham man has won more than £18,000 in a claim for unfair dismissal after he lost his job in last year's autumn floods.

Cliff Dennis, who worked at the Bradford and Bingley Sports Club for 11 years, was made redundant after the board of directors claimed the floods, which wrecked the clubhouse and grounds, left him with no duties to undertake.

But Mr Dennis, 60, - a member of the disaster sub-committee appointed to steer the Wagon Lane Club in Bingley through the flooding crisis - claimed his job was later readvertised under a new name and he had been sacked for economic reasons.

An employment tribunal in Leeds heard that Mr Dennis, now of Aire View, Silsden, was shocked to be told of his dismissal at a meeting in November.

Representing Mr Dennis, his journalist son Steven, told the hearing the first his father knew of the redundancy from his £23,000-a-year position was at a five-minute meeting with the chairman of the board, Kevin Turley, and a solicitor in his water saturated office.

Mr Dennis senior, formerly of Moor Park Drive, Addingham, told the hearing he knew staff were to be reduced from three to two after the flood but thought the bar manager job would go as he himself still had duties to liaise with the brewery and alarm company and to deal with inquiries about functions.

He said: "I have always had the club's interest at heart and in the short term I would have been able to accept a lay-off because I consider the general manager an integral part of the relaunch."

Another post of co-ordinator was later advertised and another person appointed with a £16,000 salary. The club said it was a different hands-on role which encompassed organising the bar and expanding catering for which Mr Dennis was not qualified.

The bench unanimously found in favour of Mr Dennis saying the principal reasons of the club in dismissing Mr Dennis was to restructure salary. He was awarded £18,989.

David Sneath, chairman, said the club had acted unreasonably in not consulting Mr Dennis about the club co-ordinator role.

Following the hearing, former Ilkley Gazette reporter Steven Dennis said: "My dad was treated shabbily after 11 years of loyal service and redundancy was used as a smokescreen to get rid of him.

"Together, father and son defeated the legal might of the sports club - it was father and son versus a barrister and the board and commonsense prevailed."