Thank-you Madam Chairman, normally when I say a few words at the Annual Town meeting I look back at what was said the year before. But the Charles Burrell Committee did not exist then, indeed the site was still fully functioning as a High School. And that in itself shows just how rapidly things have progressed in the last 12 months! It was around about this time last year that the Town Council resolved to hold a public meeting at the site to give local residents and groups that used the site the chance to have their say about its impending closure. As those present at that meeting will recall, it was a well attended meeting with strong passions expressed for keeping as much of the site available as possible. Following this, the Town Council agreed to establish the Charles Burrell Committee to explore the feasibility of preserving the site and at this point we engaged Robert Ashton to help co-ordinate a feasibility study into this. Several open days were held for groups interested in using parts of the building and as best possible costs were identified by the Committee.
Fortunately, thanks to a change in administration at County Hall we were able to safeguard the site whilst we considered all of the options available.
The feasibility report was concluded and presented to a Special Council in November and Councillors accepted that the project had a great deal of potential and agreed to take it to the next level which was to discuss options with Norfolk County Council. After considerably lobbying we were naturally very pleased when NCC agreed to our requests for a 30-year lease with no break-clauses exercisable on their part. We were of course nervous about investing time and money into the project only for NCC to take the site back when they felt like it or when they had figured out what they may want to do with it. Crucially for the Town Council however was the fact that the lease allows us to hand back to site to NCC at anytime in the first five years with just 3 months notice and then allows break-points for us every 5 years, if we choose to exercise it. Also, the lease allows TTC to transfer the lease to a charitable trust of its choice – something the Council has been exploring in recent weeks. The fact that there was such strong demand and that the lease was so advantageous for TTC resulted in members of the Council agreeing to sign it and become fully-committed to keeping the site open.
A new Project Co-ordinator has been recruited and additional sessional staff will be recruited in the near future. We currently have around 50 different organisations that have expressed an interest in using the site – some on a sessional basis of just a few hours a week and others wanting a more permanent base. What’s been particularly nice so far is learning about how many groups are now able to increase the activities that they provide, or what services they are able to locate locally thanks to this venue now being available.
Finally, to close, I would like to thank the members of the Charles Burrell Committee for their work and support in recent months – but not just in meetings but also for the hard graft that Councillors have put in cleaning the site and moving furniture etc and I’d also like to thank the very many people that have signed up as volunteers and supported the project so far. I’m hopeful that support will continue and this will become a thriving, and sustainable Centre for all residents of Thetford.
