Blow for plan to save town hall

THE long-running dispute over the future of Beeston Town Hall looks set to continue after leaked council documents showed that redevelopment or a sell-off could be back on the cards.

In July last year, it was announced that Broxtowe Borough Council, which owns the building, was considering selling it to developers.

At the time the council said options for redeveloping the site included demolition of the building, which sparked a campaign to save the town hall by local people.

Following the outcry the council agreed to look at bids from community groups who wanted to keep the hall in public hands.

A group called the Beeston Town Hall Community Project submitted a bid to the council showing how it hoped to run the hall.

Now, documents which the council wanted to keep private reveal a scathing analysis of the bid.

It calls the business case put forward “extremely weak” and says: “This bid provides little by way of comfort that the proposal has any realistic chance of being sustainable.

“The most likely outcome is that the council would end up with the asset back in its books - likely in a much inferior condition than at present.”

The group which submitted the bid to the council has angrily rejected the appraisal, calling it “wholly inadequate”.

Another bid, by an evangelical Christian organisation, was judged more favourably by the council, which has said it may treat it as a “preferred bidder”.

However, the decision of council bosses is to recommend that the building be put back up for sale, which could earn the council around £500,000.

The advice from officers says: “It is recommended that the Town Hall be openly marketed for a sufficient period to capture any additional interest - on the alternative basis of either retaining the Town Hall building or of redevelopment.”

The analysis of the community group’s bid goes on to say: “As the new organisation has yet to be established, there is no financial history or asset base. The bid does not attempt to overcome this credibility gap by providing financial details for the constituent organisations or individuals.

“The business case is extremely weak. It appears to be founded on the principle of profit from a cafeteria and income from room hire or office rents covering the community activities, supplemented by third party grants. There are no details of where such grants may come from. The cafe ‘is not intended to compete with existing cafes in Beeston’ and existing kitchen facilities are considered adequate for such operation.

“Officers do not believe either of these positions is realistic - especially if this is to be the main incomegenerator.”

Judy Sleath is the chairwoman of Beeston Civic Society, which was involved in both the bid and the petition to keep the building public.

Speaking on behalf of the Beeston Town Hall Community Trust, she said: “It is wholly inadequate as a basis for the committee to make a properly informed decision about the future of the town hall, and we will be writing to the members of the committee explaining why that is so.

“We will be sending the members of the committee copies of our submission documents so they have full and accurate information about our proposal. We are not assuming the committee will adopt the report and its recommendations, and in fact do not see how they could properly do so.”

A spokeswoman for Broxtowe Borough Council said: “No decisions have yet been made and councillors will debate this matter at the Policy and Performance Committee on Wednesday. A final decision is expected at Full Council in the autumn.”