Haywards Heath community interest company shares full details of bid for Clair Hall
A community interest company has shared the full details of its bid for Clair Hall in Haywards Heath.
The Haywards Heath Community CIC announced on Facebook on Monday, December 22, that people can view its bid document at www.hhcommunitycic.org.uk.
The post said the CIC’s bid ‘is supported by a detailed business plan and funding programme’.
It said: “Thanks to a generous donor, to enable to council to choose which alternative they prefer, we have bid in the alternative:
“£777K for the building, the figure which the External Auditor E&Y have confirmed is the value of Clair Hall as stated in Mid Sussex District Council accounts. Or guaranteed rent for a 35 year lease complying with council published policy.”
The ‘Formal Bid for the Acquisition of Clair Hall as an Asset of Community Value’ (ACV) document said the CIC is an eligible community interest body.
The document said: “MSDC have declined to advise whether they are looking for a bid for the freehold of the Property or a lease of the Property. This bid is therefore submitted in the alternative for MSDC to consider which option they would prefer.”
It explained that the Haywards Heath Community CIC was established to ‘protect, enhance and operate vital community assets for the benefit of the residents of Haywards Heath and the wider Mid Sussex area’. It said the CIC has organised and supported ‘extensive arts and cultural community events’ in the town for more than 10 years, adding that these have included large events ‘attended by hundreds of residents’.
It said: “This bid is specifically in response to the strong public mandate to retain and reopen Clair Hall following its designation as an ACV for continued and enhanced community use.”
The bid called Clair Hall ‘a central and irreplaceable venue’ for arts, events and public services. The bid’s aim is to secure its future as ‘a sustainable, community-owned and community-operated facility’ so it can remain accessible to all residents.
The bid’s vision and community objectives are: to revitalise Clair Hall as a multi-use civic and cultural hub; to provide affordable space for community groups, charities, youth organisations, wellbeing providers and social enterprises; to re-establish Clair Hall as a performance, cinema and events venue for local groups; to set up new opportunities to support ‘hard-to-reach youth’ in the town; to offer flexible co-working and training facilities; to set up a new community garden; to deliver a ‘financially resilient’ operating model via ‘diversified income streams’; and to champion sustainability, accessibility and community participation.
The bid’s conclusion said: “Clair Hall represents far more than a building; it is a centrepiece of civic identity, cultural expression, and collective memory for Haywards Heath. This bid offers Mid Sussex District Council a credible and community-driven route to safeguard that legacy while delivering a renewed asset that contributes socially, culturally, and economically to the town and financially to MSDC.
“We look forward to the opportunity to work together constructively in the interests of the community we jointly serve.”
Mid Sussex District Council has been approached for comment.