Stoke on Trent Town Hall Post Occupation Council has come on board to ask MOJ for 6 months for community proposal with Council backing....we are winning but keep networking

Following the recent month long occupation of Fenton Town Hall, the Ministry of Justice, the government department charged with the building's disposal, agreed to take the community's proposals further by bringing in the major stakeholder Stoke-on-Trent City Council into negotiations alongside the community / Urban Vision. A meeting between Urban Vision and senior councillors / managers at the civic centre in Stoke led to this letter being sent to Shailesh Vara MP from Cllr Mohammed Pervez. It could be considered a Christmas present, especially paragraph 2 (unfortunately Facebook doesn't allow for bold fonts). Financial backing aside, though in time there could be the possibility of assistance with accessing external funding, this is a 100% endorsement from the city council:
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Shailesh Vara MP

Fenton Town Hall Disposal

Thank you for considering Urban Vision North Staffordshire’s proposal for the future of Fenton Town Hall and for giving us the opportunity to comment directly on this proposal.

As you are aware, it is the aspiration of Stoke-on-Trent City Council that Fenton Town Hall should be returned for the benefit of local residents and businesses. Following our discussions with Urban Vision, it has been agreed that the building should be placed into Urban Vision/community ownership and not the council. This approach will maximise access to external funding opportunities, will be in line with council’s own strategy around empowering communities to become more independent of the local authority, and allow the community to take greater ownership of their own futures against a backdrop of on-going budgetary pressures within the council.

We believe Urban Vision’s outline proposals have significant potential and they appear to have a good degree of confidence that they can make the proposition work. However, Urban Vision also recognises that more work would need to be done to develop these proposals into a full business case which could take up to 6 months. If required, the council would be willing to work in collaboration with the MoJ to facilitate this window of opportunity with them and to offer support and guidance to Urban Vision during this period. The council would also be willing to consider the offer from Urban Vision for a place on the Board of Trustees should they proceed with a Trust model. We would be happy to work with yourselves and Urban Vision to understand the implications of such an arrangement.

I trust this provides some assurance for the council’s willingness to work with Urban Vision to safeguard the future of Fenton Town Hall through a self-sustainable model within the community ownership.

We sincerely request and hope that you will seriously consider Urban Vision’s proposal and allow them a six months extension to bring this building back into sustainable community use for the greater good of our communities and businesses.

Yours Sincerely
Mohammed Pervez
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Please re-read the following:

"Following our discussions with Urban Vision, it has been agreed that the building should be placed into Urban Vision/community ownership and not the council. This approach will maximise access to external funding opportunities, will be in line with council’s own strategy around empowering communities to become more independent of the local authority, and allow the community to take greater ownership of their own futures against a backdrop of on-going budgetary pressures within the council."

This qualifies the council's earlier request for the Town Hall to come back to the people of Stoke-on-Trent and for the people of Stoke-on-Trent to be consulted over the building's future. In future negotiations, as before, reference will certainly be made to the community plan produced by the Fenton Community First Panel which highlighted the demand for another community facility in Fenton and the opportunity Urban Vision / the community's plans for the building present for the town and the wider conurbation of Stoke-on-Trent.

I truly believe that the occupation effected change and that we got out at the right time. To use numbers I would say our chances prior to occupation were 2/10, now they are 6/10.

Not a victory, but a MAJOR step forward.

I am posting a copy of the letter on the files section of this page.