Agenda item

To consider whether to release Section 106 funding for the refurbishment of the Old School House, Takeley.

RESOLVED to approve the release of £86,490.44 from Section 106 monies for the refurbishment of the Old School House at Takeley,subject to consultation with the contributing developers.

Members considered a report on a request from Takeley Parish Council for release of section 106 money for the refurbishment of The Old School House at Brewers End in Takeley. 

RESOLVED to approve the release of £86,490.44 from Section 106 monies for the refurbishment of the Old School House at Takeley,subject to consultation with the contributing developers.

The meeting ended at 8.10pm.

PUBLIC SPEAKING STATEMENTS

Nigel Robley spoke in support of the nomination of POW Camp 116, Hatfield Heath as an asset of community value, raising the following points:

·         He spoke as a parish councillor;

·         The Camp was virtually unique;

·         The owners seemed to wish to build homes on the site;

·         Contrary to a statement in the report that no access had been gained since 1980, research revealed that Alan Wilton, a school governor, arranged educational trips to the site in October 2014 and subsequently;

·         Funding would be via the precept and the Lottery Heritage Fund, eventually becoming self-funding.

Niki Champion spoke in favour of the nomination of POW Camp 116 being included in the list of assets of community value.  She raised the following points:

·         As a resident who lived near the site, she wished to express the community view;

·         She had witnessed numbers of visitors attending the site;

·         People visiting had a variety of reasons, including family connections, historical and artistic interests;

·         In 2017 a petition to prevent the development of the land had gained 500+ signatures;

·         The site was one of the best surviving examples of POW camps in the UK, and it was important to remember that the prisoners had contributed to the local community.

Ivan Cooper spoke in support of the nomination of the Camp as an asset of community value.  He made the following points:

·         The POW Camp had educational value;

·         Since 2009 Alan Wilton, in his role as School Governor, had taken students to visit the site;

·         He had been involved in producing a book about the Camp, in 2013, which had sold over 240 copies globally;

·         English Heritage had given the Camp a rating of “2”,meaning it was nearly complete

·         There was good reason to maintain the Camp for these reasons.

Sam Bampton spoke against the nomination of Camp 116 as an asset of community value.  He made the following points:

·         He represented the owners of the POW Camp, who agreed with the officer recommendation;

·         Camp 116 had been built in 1941, was decommissioned in 1945 and returned to the original owners, who had chosen to retain the huts;

·         There had been no qualifying use of the site as one which could be included in the list of assets of community value;

·         There was no realistic prospect of the Parish Council matching the funding required;

·         The timeframe for any bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund was longer than the legislative timeframe for determining the nomination of the site as an asset of community value;

·         The legal status of the site seemed to have been misunderstood by the Parish Council;

·         The owners had made several attempts to engage with the Parihs Council, and had soguth to preserve the mural and had installed an information board at the entrance

·         To include the POW Camp in the list of assets of community value would be an error in law and open to challenge, therefore it was not in the public interest to add it to the list.

David Parish spoke in favour of adding the site to the list of assets of community value, making the following points:

·         He was a member of the History Society of Hatfield Heath, and had a longstanding interest in wildlife;

·         During his time as a parish councillor he had built up a wildlife register, and was dismayed at the action of the owners in fencing off most of the area, preventing herds from moving across the land;

·         It was important to consider wildlife from now on.