Zak McCombie, from Northwich, is a director of the McCombie Group, which has property, development, and construction divisions.
WPRC closed its doors at the end of March after running into financial difficulties amid fears 135 years of Northwich sports and social history would be lost.
The club’s facilities were used for a wide range of community sports including football, cricket, bowling, dance, archery, table tennis, fishing, and snooker.
Northwich Town Council applied to have the club designated an asset of community value, meaning if it were ever sold, the community would have certain rights if it wanted to buy it.
The scale of the club’s financial difficulties is not widely known, but it is understood a big financial investment would be required to save it from going bust.
Mr McCombie was appointed as a director of WPRC on Thursday, April 17, according to records held by Companies House.
The 37-year-old’s appointment was announced in the form of a press release on the club’s website, issued jointly by its directors.
At the same time, it announced two of its three other directors, Richard Nicholls and Louise Logue, had stepped down with immediate effect.
It added Margaret Dutton, the third director, remains in post ‘for a transitionary period’ to support Mr McCombie.
His commitment to maintaining the club as a community sports facility was set out in the announcement, stating he ‘shares the directors’ desire to preserve and enhance the history of the club’.
It added he will ‘refurbish and develop the existing buildings’ and is ‘committed to ensuring the continuation of community sports and recreation at that site, and the preservation of the sports fields’.
It says: “The directors of WPRC have undertaken an exhaustive search for financial support.
“We have explored every option to achieve the best outcome for the club and the community in the circumstances.
“We have engaged with multiple stakeholders both public and private sector.
“We announce today the search has been successful and new funding has been secured, which will avoid insolvency and deliver much needed investment.
“Zak McCombie, a local businessman and a son of the town of Northwich, will step up to the board of WPRC.
“Zak has made commitments to the directors of WPRC privately and now does so publicly.”
Rules governing the ownership and management of the club are complicated, but it is understood Mr McCombie will have the power to make fundamental changes, if he wishes.
Whether the land on Park Road could ever be sold for development is also unclear, but according to documents held by the Land Registry, a number of covenants restricting its use were dissolved in 2018.
The land on Park Road in Winnington was owned by what became ICI Chemicals for more than 100 years.
In 1994, it was acquired by a consortium of local people, owned by 101 shareholders.
Many of these were associates of the various sports clubs which use WPRC for their activities.
Responsibility for most of the decision-making lies with a board of volunteer directors, who together own a controlling proportion of the club’s shares.
The intention behind this structure was to make the club easy to manage effectively, while at the same time, making the land very difficult to sell without the agreement of the people who use it regularly.
Asked about the implications of Mr McCombie appointment, Chester West and Chester Councillor for Witton Ward, Sam Naylor said: “I’m a glass half full man over this issue.
“On the face of it, he’s a guy with good intentions who has saved a jewel in the crown community asset.
“We hope he’s going to look after it and protect it.
“As a long-time user of WPRC, I’m pleased it is going to be saved from administration.
“That would’ve been the complete end of it as far as I’m concerned, and the future of all the sports clubs it supports would have been in jeopardy.
“Everyone tried so hard, but without significant financial investment, it would’ve gone to the wall.
“My glass is half full on this. We’ve got to take things at face value at the moment.
“Only time will tell.”
Mr McCombie has been approached for comment.
