A FAMILY has been left without heat and light after a troubled Oxford sports and social club closed down.

Earle Smith, partner Tammy Laubscher and their three-year old daughter Jodie are living in a flat provided by the Lord Nuffield Club, in Cowley, that was plunged into darkness on July 16 after the club, in William Morris Close, failed to pay an electricity bill.

Mr Smith, who worked as a chef and receptionist Ms Laubscher have also lost their jobs and fear they will be left homeless as they are on visas from South Africa and not entitled to state help after arriving in the UK last October.

Mr Smith said: “This is not a suitable environment for a three-year-old as we have been left with no power, but the council has said it can’t help.

“We have been working, taken nothing from social services and just want to build a life here – but we could be left homeless.”

The Lord Nuffield Club is now in receivership after it defaulted on its mortgage with the Nationwide building society.

Another victim is Clare Howard, who has had to cancel her wedding after she handed £1,000 over to the club in April to pay for a reception at the venue.

Ms Howard, 24, from Blackbird Leys, who was due to marry Geoff Chilton, her partner of six years in September, said: “I paid for it in full because I wanted to get everything sorted out but now I can’t afford to pay for anything else.

“The wedding has cost me £3,000 and I haven’t got anything left.

“We talked about it and decided to call off the wedding until next year because we don’t want to have second best. I am very upset about it.”

The doors of the venue, formerly known as the Morris Motors Social and Athletic Club, have been closed for ten days after the electricity was cut off by power company EDF Energy following a dispute over the bill, believed to be for tens of thousands of pounds.

As a result, it has ceased trading, the jobs of 15 staff have been lost and scores of members of the club’s sports sections have been left in limbo while receivers Moore Stephens try to sort out its affairs.

Club secretary Michael Kelly said: “This is the end of many years of strife. The club was built for the community and most of the people involved turn up voluntarily.

“Now that has gone because the building society has pulled the mortgage just at the time it was starting to take off.”

Mr Kelly said the electricity bill relates to a period before the newly built £4.5m clubhouse was handed over to the committee in December 2007 and should have been paid by builders HG Construction. But bosses at HG Construction dispute the claim.

Joint receiver and manager Jeremy Willmont said: “There is no money but we hope there is substantial equity in the building.”

In 2007, the club, which is run by an elected committee and charges a membership of £16 a year, was put into the hands of the Official Receiver and was due to be liquidated until it was rescued by developer Eddie Costello who handed the committee a new clubhouse in exchange for being allowed to develop part of the site for housing.