Agenda item

A report summarising the position in relation to Horton Chapel and seeking agreement to a way forward to result in the disposal of the Chapel by the Council, either to an organisation for provision of a community facility, or on the open market.

The Committee:

(1)          Noted the position to date;

(2)          Authorised Officers, following consultation with the Chairman of the Strategy and Resources Committee, to finalise a pack of information to be available for anyone interested in putting forward a bid for the building: such pack to be available by the end of February 2016;

(3)          Agreed the allocation of funds as follows:

a)            Up to £450,000 to be available to any purchaser to be expended on the refurbishment and renovation of Horton Chapel;

b)            Up to a further £1 million to be available to any purchaser proposing a wholly community/charitable end use for the building;

c)            Any mixed use incorporating community/charitable uses and commercial use to be entitled to a sum between the above figures depending on the nature of the mix proposed, with the intention that it be limited to a sum up to £500,000 in addition to the sum at (a)

d)            Additional sums to be held at this point as a contingency and to meet the cost of all professional advice and assistance.

(4)          Agreed that bids be invited for community/charitable proposals to be submitted by the end of June 2016; and

(5)          Agreed that a further report be brought to the Committee at its meeting on 28 June 2016 to update on progress and to consider whether/when/how marketing for commercial bids should commence.

Note: Councillor Eber Kington left the meeting/Chamber and took no part in the debate or decision on this matter.

A report summarising the position in relation to Horton Chapel was presented to the Committee.  The report also sought agreement to a way forward with a view to the Council disposing of the Chapel either to an organisation for provision of a community facility or on the open market.

A revised set of recommendations were tabled by the Chairman for discussion.

A note setting out the background to how the Council acquired Horton Chapel and the numerous attempts to bring it back into use was set out in Annexe 1 to the report. In regard to the sum of money it was proposed to make available to any purchaser to expend on refurbishment and renovation, it was noted that various sums were held in accordance with previous decision and contractual obligations and it therefore it made sense to transfer these sums with the property.  In the intervening years, the Council had not expended significant sums on the building over and above what was required to facilitate bringing it back into use.  Using the earmarked funds would not be at the detriment to the Council’s financial position.

The following points were also noted:

·                     Community groups would have a period of up to 4 months to submit bids at which point a decision would be taken on whether or not any bids were viable, taking into account that bids may be dependent on external funding;

·                     The Council did not have the internal expertise to evaluate such bids and external assistance would be sought to agree objective evaluation criteria;

·                     There would be no public open day and the Chapel could not be used by the community in the interim for health and safety reasons. It was likely that the Council would engage an agent, as in the case of Downs House and supervised viewings would take place as part of this process;

·                     Bidding for lottery funding was not a competitive process and therefore there would be no conflict of interest in the Council supporting a bid submitted in relation to Horton Chapel and any bid in relation to Nonsuch Park.  In any event, there were various streams of lottery funding and it was unlikely that the bids would be made to the same fund;

·                     A small sum was being held back to cover the Council’s costs in facilitating the disposal of the Chapel.

Accordingly, the Committee:

(1)          Noted the position to date;

(2)          Authorised Officers, following consultation with the Chairman of the Strategy and Resources Committee, to finalise a pack of information to be available for anyone interested in putting forward a bid for the building: such pack to be available by the end of February 2016;

(3)          Agreed the allocation of funds as follows:

·                     Up to £450,000 to be available to any purchaser to be expended on the refurbishment and renovation of Horton Chapel;

·                     Up to a further £1 million to be available to any purchaser proposing a wholly community/charitable end use for the building;

·                     Any mixed use incorporating community/charitable uses and commercial use to be entitled to a sum between the above figures depending on the nature of the mix proposed, with the intention that it be limited to a sum up to £500,000 in addition to the sum at (a)

·                     Additional sums to be held at this point as a contingency and to meet the cost of all professional advice and assistance.

(4)          Agreed that bids be invited for community/charitable proposals to be submitted by the end of June 2016; and

(5)          Agreed that a further report be brought to the Committee at its meeting on 28 June 2016 to update on progress and to consider whether/when/how marketing for commercial bids should commence.