Seaton, Cranbrook, community space

Someone has said to me re the item below (Cranbrook New Town to get a purpose-built, flexible use community centre as soon as the 150th house is completed), "Ah, but what about Seaton Town Hall - that's community space".

Well, let's look at this. One very, very large room with absolutely no storage space on the ground floor. So if, for example, a group is rehearsing for three or four days, it takes a block booking and no-one else can use it. This is NOT multi-use, multi-purpose. A multi-purpose building is capable of being used by several groups at the same time with halls and rooms of different sizes, rooms which can be made larger or smaller by partition, etc. Most community centres (and practically all of the new ones) have indoor sports facilities, shower rooms, etc and are, of course, fully accessible to people with disabilities. Seaton is the only town in East Devon without an indoor sports hall.

The Town Hall has one room upstairs (the Council Chamber) which seats no more than 20 people (with great difficulty) and can't be used if the council needs it for meetings, which are frequent. It also has a space about the same size opposite that room, with a small kitchenette, where a full-height, folding, plastic door can be pulled over to give some semblance of privacy. Both rooms upstairs are approached by a flight of stairs with a full bend half way up. There is no lift or stairlift. They are therefore totally inaccessible to people in wheelchairs or anyone who has a problem with stairs. There are no toilets for disabled people on the first floor either, of course. In both rooms you can stand outside and hear every word of what is being said inside even when doors are fully closed (very embarrassing when the Housing Benefit people visit Seaton as they have to whisper so as not to be overheard, which is very difficult if you are deaf).

The Town Council has considered changing the Council Chamber into an office and renting it out to try to get some much-needed income for the town but can't do it because there is no access for disabled people and no toilet facilities for them on the first floor.

EDDC dictates the prices of hire for each of the rooms (the Town Hall belongs to EDDC NOT to Seaton Town Council). The ground floor hall is almost always completely booked out for Saturdays but is often not booked at all during the week. Why? The cost puts people off, the size of the ground floor room is not flexible enough for many activities (10 or 20 people are lost in such a big room) and the rooms upstairs are too small and inaccessible.

Groups using the Town Hall are starting to cut down their expenses in order to pay for using it: for example, drama groups that took it for a week to rehearse are now taking it for only 3-4 days or finding other ways of cutting costs such as not having an orchestra but having only 2-3 musicians.

I went to a meeting of Town Hall users about two years ago when the Manager of the theatre at Exmouth said that in order for Seaton Town Hall to be a suitable venue for more events, it would need (a) a better foyer with dedicated box office, (b) better seating arrangement and (c) better arrangement for the bar and (d) better storage. He mentioned that, if you made some of these changes you might use the Town Hall for things such as weddings. Would you use the Town Hall, with its chipped aubergine paint, uncomfortable chairs and echoing vastness for your wedding!

At a meeting about 2 years ago, I suggested that, as most rooms lie idle during the week due to the cost of hire, EDDC should have a trial period of offering cut-price use of the facilities on some weekdays. I was told that the extra ost of employing the caretaker to open and lock up would mean that this could not be done. You therefore have a situation where people can't afford to use the Town Hall so it stays empty and because it stays empty we are told that we don't need any other facilities. Work that one out!

EDDC has tried for years to get Seaton Town Council to take on the Town Hall and run it. They have resisted this because they would then have to take on the insurance of the building and all its repairs - something the Town Council cannot afford. And no doubt there would be many strings attached to running it, too. Not to mention a board of trustees would be needed to take it on - in its current state and with its current problems.

At a meeting for potential Town Councillors hosted by Mark Williams, Chief Executive of EDDC, he mentioned that Town Halls could take over services such as street cleaning, etc from EDDC. When I asked him if EDDC would then rebate the town for the cost of these services which EDDC would no longer have to provide (e.g. salary, pension costs, national insurance, etc) he said that it was "not that easy". Therefore, the situation could arise if the town council ran its own services (including the Town Hall) that we would be paying twice for them - once to EDDC for services they no longer provided and once from the town council budget. This would mean that EDDC could then spend the money they saved in other towns where EDDC still employs people direct. Obviously, not a sensible thing to do.

No, the only route is a multi-purpose, purpose-built community centre. However, the Liatris site cannot provide this because (a) Liatris say they can't afford it if they have to bring in a million tons of infill to raise it and (b) EDDC can't afford it because the Section 106 money that Liatris gives to EDDC to be allowed to built on the site will almost certainly be used to purchase the remaining 250 acres of wetlands on Seaton Marshes to extend the current nature reserve to bring in 30,000 tourists who will have nowhere to stay because tourist accommodation on the site is being demolished to be replaced by housing and supermarkets. Or it will be used for the tiny visitor centre which no-one in their right mind would make a special trip to visit or on a few (very few) affordable houses (down from 180 to 75 at the moment).

1,200 - 1,500 extra people in the town and just the Town Hall as the only focus for community life. To paraphrase Through the Keyhole: Who lives in a town like this - over to you EDDC.