Renewed hope for Burgess Hill arts venue as councillors agree plan to ‘resell vision’

But residents in the public gallery were more concerned about the state of the town centre.

Following years of hard work and planning by councillors and members of the community, the application for the Beehive – a 237-seat theatre and community venue, in Cyprus Road – was approved by the planning committee in January.

But despite getting the go-ahead from the planning committee, the town council still faces a major challenge – money.

At the town council meeting, council leader Robert Eggleston, who spoke to the Middy ahead of the meeting about the challenges the town is facing, admitted there was currently ‘nowhere near enough’ money for the project.

He said: “We’ve got a current cost if you add in inflation now of probably approaching £6million.

“The way that we are currently structured to fund it is on the basis of a £3million from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) which was agreed by the previous administration with a balance of it coming from grants, donations and whether Section 106 money exists at the Mid Sussex District Council and we are able to get.

“Our research so far shows that there is nowhere near enough available for a community facility in the centre of Burgess Hill we anticipated.”

Cash shortfall

Mr Eggleston said £2.5million needed to be raised elsewhere in order to build the centre – which is to replace Martlets Hall – but to date, a professional fundraiser, who was appointed last year, had raised nothing.

The council previously asked residents to pay for the venue with an increase in council tax but this was rejected.

Mr Eggleston said the cultural steering group considered building a venue with just the £3million PWLB loan, but this would only get the equivalent of a village hall and a couple of rooms.

“I would like to think that we discount that route and focus very much on delivering the Beehive project as originally envisaged,” said Mr Eggleston.

“If the view of this council and the view of the town is that it wants a facility of this nature then one of the things we have to do is focus on how quickly we can deliver it. Because the longer you delay it the more expensive it gets.

“If you want this thing opened by let’s say May 2023, you’ve got a two-year build project, which means you have got to start building it in May 2021.

“As a council and as a town, we have to face up to those two timelines, one to deliver it quickly – you’ve got to start earlier or you delay it and it becomes progressively more expensive and we’re all back to square one.

“So that’s a decision that this key area group and the council has to look at very closely if it wants to deliver it.”

‘More income’

Mr Eggleston said the current facility had been designed and marketed on the basis that the auditorium has a capacity of 237 seats – assuming that every production was going to be a stage production of some kind. But this is not the case, he said, as a show with a band could actually accommodate between 283 and 321 people.

He commented: “This is significant in a couple of respects – one for performers and it has an impact on the business plan because if you up your capacity number then clearly it will generate more income.”

No funding

If the council takes out the £3million loan it would need to pay back £123,000 a year. Mr Eggleston said this could be funded out of its existing budget – which it agreed on in January – but it has not got the balance of the funding of it.

He said: “As a resident of the town, I might look round and say why has this council taken out a loan, is paying capital interest on a loan but is getting absolutely nothing in return? So that’s a choice we could make.

“Or, we could take out the loan and see what the fundraiser can get and if there’s a shortfall we could try and borrow more from the PWLB, but to do that we would need approval from the residents of the town to do that.

“And the PWLB might turn round and say you’ve drawn down a £3m loan in August 2020, and you’re coming back to us in the spring of 2021 and you want some more money – how does that work?

“So the risk you have there is the PWLB, assuming we get residents’ support for it, saying ‘we don’t know what you’re doing’.

“Or, we accept that there is a real challenge around the fundraiser raising the balance of the funds anytime soon and we let the current loan lapse, look at what we need to deliver the project and we go back to the PWLB and ask for the appropriate facility to do that. But in order to do that we would need the support of the town.”

Plan to ‘resell vision’

Mr Eggleston proposed the council spend 60 days talking to the people of Burgess Hill to ‘resell the vision’ and highlight that Burgess Hill was the only town in Mid Sussex which does not have a community facility.

“I think that for a town our size, which is the biggest town in Mid Sussex, and pretty soon will be far and away the biggest town in Mid Sussex, it is absolutely unacceptable for us to be without a community arts facility,” he said.

“For me, two thirds of my life is over, and I am beginning to think about what is the place that I am going to leave behind? And what would I like Burgess Hill to be like when I’m gone?

“I would like to see a state-of-the-art community arts venue which is good for businesses, good for business for the town, is good for our community groups, supports the cultural life of our many artistic groups within the town, is attractive for commercial artists to come to the town and puts Burgess Hill on the map.

“I think that’s a good legacy for the council and I think that’s a good vision for the council to have, but it’s not up to me, it’s not up to any of us, it’s a vision that we need to resell to the town and we need to do that in an open and honest way.”

Figures are ‘scary’

Councillor Andrew Barrett-Miles said he fully supported Mr Eggleston’s proposal. He said: “I support you going out to the public and saying it is going to cost you more, but I do believe that you can do it within the current budget, allowing for the increase in money coming from the new houses to the north and east of the town.”

However, councillor Anne Eves (Leylands ward) said: “I admire the vision and I like the idea of having an arts centre in this town but the figures are really scaring me.

“You’ve mentioned three options – there are in fact three other options as well, one is to refurbish the RBL building, one is to downsize this in some way so that it is cheaper and the other one is to drop the whole idea – we have to discuss those options as well.

“And what makes you think people will change their mind from last time when they said yes we want it but we don’t see why we should pay for it?”

In response, Mr Eggleston said the RBL building was in disrepair and too small to use. He added that the council needed to work on the basis that it can resell the vision and that the people of Burgess Hill are angry that Burgess Hill is the only town without such a centre.

Council tax increase

He said if the council was to increase council tax in order to pay for the centre, residents would have to pay an extra 70p a month for 50 years. This is based on Band D residents and a £6million loan. If it was a £4.8million loan, it would be an extra 37p a month.

Councillors agreed on ten weeks of consultation, the creation of a proposal it can present to the town and a four-week period for residents to give their view.

Their recommendation will go to the full council on March 8.