Time is running out for Bath Place community centre

[dutchman]

COMMUNITY groups in Leamington fear they could be left homeless if one of the town’s historic buildings is sold.

Warwickshire College, which owns the old library in Avenue Road, and Warwick District Council, which owns the adjoining former art gallery and museum, are considering selling the Grade II-listed Victorian building to a developer.

But the old library is currently home to Bath Place Community Venture, which moved in after fire destroyed its original premises in 2009, with Leamington’s Community Arts Workshop (CAW) in the gallery next door.

CAW director Fran Godwin, also a trustee of Bath Place, said neither organisation wanted to move - and both had fears for the future.

He said: “This building has huge civic heritage and people love it.

“People need faith that they have a place to go to, both physically and spiritually. Politicians don’t understand.”

Bath Place has 100 to 150 users each day. Tenants include the County Music Service, Springfield MIND, Mediation and Counselling Services, Warwickshire Probation Service and jobseeker assistance agency REMPLOY. The Women’s Institute and political parties hire rooms, as well as health and arts groups.

Mr Godwin, who has been developing a business plan, says the district council needs to be serious about offering alternative premises, as having no tenure made it hard to secure long-term funding.

Bath Place site supervisor Clayton Denwood believes the building’s design and history as a public building makes it ideal for community use and many groups had made it their home.

He praised the support the library’s owner Warwickshire College had given the community venture, but said selling it would be a “massive loss” and there had been a “heartbreaking” lack of support from local government.

A Warwick district council spokeswoman said CAW’s lease ended on March 31, adding the authority had been in discussions with both groups and made them aware of potential new premises.

Warwickshire College asset development executive director Chris Paget said Bath Place, which uses the building for free, had an excellent relationship with the college and had always understood the building was on the market. He added the college, a charity, was looking to sell the building to invest in development projects to benefit its students

Warwick and Leamington MP Chris White, who helped decorate a room at Bath Place before the last election, is due to meet representatives from all groups on February 3. Although he praised Bath Place’s ‘social value’ he said it might be necessary to look at what was practical.

He said: “I will be doing whatever I can to make sure the ethos of Bath Place and the organisations have a future.”

[dutchman]

Bath Place wants to stay as long as it can, but money is running out

BATH Place Community Venture will negotiate to stay in its premises for as long as possible, and has not ruled out trying to buy them.

But the Leamington community centre’s management has admitted that with only three to six months’ funding left and dwindling income it will have to increase its efforts to find a new site.

The venture’s landlord Warwickshire College offered it a three-month extension at the former library in Avenue Road in March, after giving it a month’s notice to quit earlier this year.

At an extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday members voted to ask the board of trustees not to sign any agreement that would end Bath Place’s tenancy until they received independent legal advice.

In a statement, the board’s chairman David Williams said that although the board could challenge the college in court, confrontation would damage the venture, and “constructive” negotiations to stay as long as possible were the best course.

Board member Chris Barrow set out plans to move into digital media to raise money to stay in the building. But the board said it would also step up efforts to find new premises, and reserved the right to object to any planning application from a developer.

Some at the meeting expressed disquiet that the board would not discuss details of the college’s negotiations with a developer.

The college’s director of properties Chris Paget said he had wanted Bath Place to buy the building, and had not served notice because it supported the venture.

[dutchman]

Bath Place leaders slam ‘grotesque’ plans to turn building into flats



PLANS to turn a historic Leamington building currently used as a community centre have been described as “misleading” and “grotesque”.

Developer Tag Exclusive Properties has submitted a planning application to turn the former library in Avenue Road into 28 ‘luxury apartments’ - but tenant Bath Place Community Venture has made its opposition clear.

The venture has until September 14 to vacate the premises, which owner Warwickshire College has allowed it to use since a fire in 2009 ravaged its original premises, but venture staff would like to buy the building for community use.

Among Tag’s plans is to turn the skylit atrium in the centre of the Grade II listed building into a courtyard, describing it as a “later addition” that should be demolished to restore the building’s historic grandeur. But a statement from Bath Place’s management team makes clear their opposition.

It says: “The atrium over the past few years has served as a meeting, gathering, learning and creative event space for thousands of people from the community and beyond and is the heart around which the entire building circulates.

“To consider its removal for the sake of an internal courtyard as an improvement which somehow ‘respects’ the building’s heritage is entirely and categorically grotesque.”

Bath Place’s management team said photographs of the building when it was boarded up were “misleading”, and the application was “inaccurate” in describing its use as temporary offices when Bath Place was a charitable organisation running a cafe, yoga studio and meeting rooms.

The statement adds managers were “taken aback” by a suggested £150,000 contribution to social housing, comparing this to the loss of Bath Place’s services to vulnerable young people, those with mental health problems and the homeless.

They added that living space in many of the flats fell well below guidelines from the Royal Institute of British Architects, adding: “It seems the design is simply to maximise profit and cram as many rooms in as possible. None of the grandeur of the upper floors is to be retained and the generosity of the ground floor rooms would be severely compromised. In short, the building was not designed for residences.”

Tag partner Simon Tate said he would prefer to leave planners to make a formal decision on the designs. He added photographs used had been taken when the firm began working on the scheme. He added that the sale would go ahead, and while it was unlikely other buildings would “tick all the boxes”, Bath Place needed to find new premises to continue offering its services.

The deadline for comments is Monday, September 17.

http://www.warwickdc.gov.uk