Victory for common sense

Re: Battle Almonry. Having spent £50,000 on professional fees and in excess if a £1,000 on a consultation Battle Town Council failed to get the support of even 3% of the residents. The chairman says the results were not conclusive. 97% did not support the proposal to spend £875,000 on a Civic Centre Development which was fervently proposed by some Councillors. The vice chairman says no side should claim victory. The victory has been claimed by common sense and the result is the indebtedness of Battle will be at least £300,000 less.
It is playing with the English language to say the project has been scaled back. The concept of the project has been scrapped. There is no rebuild of the South Wing, there is to be no vastly expensive wonder display system.

We opponents of the grand design always wanted the Almonry to be repaired, to be fit for purpose as an historic building for use as a modest Town Hall. The chairman, casting around for something to say says the consultation showed there was no appetite for the town council moving out of the Almonry. Throughout my opposition to the grand design I have never advocated this as a proposal. It was put in the consultation paper by the council. So few, if any, asked for it to be considered as an option at this stage yet it still garnered 25% of the votes given for the £mega proposal promoted by some councillors.
Superficially, it appears the council has listened, scrapped the Civic Centre Plan and opted to do what the 225 people asked for at the January Parish Meeting - ie repair the Almonry. But then why did the council vote last week to apply for a loan of £600,000 from the Public Works Loan Board? A question asked by some councillors whose concerns were brushed aside. Even in their own latest papers it puts the repair costs at less than £350,000.

Fortunately for the people of Battle I believe these councillors will be more circumspect when dealing with the application.
I have been criticised for being continuously critical of the project. When I was a councillor I tried to bring sense and cohesion to the planning process. I am the first to admit I was unsuccessful. Those in control had but one objective, to see this vanity project through to completion. If only they had stopped to listen to some advice based on experience in industry; if only they had listened to warning voices from residents that there was insufficient support from the residents, then at least £20,000 of the £50,000+ spent on the project would not just be so much waste paper.

In view of the post Covid-19 pandemic economic situation that waste is now even more appalling. Of course the council were not to know about the Covid crisis during the so called planning phase of this project. So why do I raise it now? Seven days before the closIng date of the consultation a Draft Strategic Plan was produced and this document cited additional reasons to go ahead because of the aftermath of Covid-19. A simply disgraceful, unjustified and unjustifiable use of the Covid 19 pandemic. 
So let us be clear. The people of Battle did not support the civic centre scheme, they are wary of attempts to slide things through the backdoor and they are trusting other councillors to ensure the Almonry is just repaired and made fit for (modest) purpose. And for the proponents of the grand design I suggest you graciously accept you lost the argument, now get on with doing what the residents want.

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