Minority report challenges Clair Hall closure decision

Assertions underpinning the decision to permanently close Clair Hall have been challenged in a minority report submitted by Lib Dems and Independents.
Lib Dem campaigner Anne Marie Cooke and Lib Dem district council group leader Alison BennettLib Dem campaigner Anne Marie Cooke and Lib Dem district council group leader Alison Bennett
Lib Dem campaigner Anne Marie Cooke and Lib Dem district council group leader Alison Bennett

Last month, Mid Sussex District Council’s Conservative cabinet voted to shutter the Haywards Heath community venue citing falling usage and the cost of future maintenance and improving its energy efficiency.

The decision was called-in by the Lib Dems and discussed by a scrutiny committee earlier this month where the majority of councillors voted not to refer the decision back to cabinet.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Four Lib Dems and two independent councillors have jointly submitted a minority report, which they say reveals a number of claims made to inform the cabinet’s decision were incorrect or misleading.

They argue many of the concerns raised in the call-in were excluded from discussion at the subsequent scrutiny committee meeting.

Alison Bennett, Lib Dem group leader, said: “Those who watched the scrutiny committee on YouTube were rightly appalled by how the meeting was run, and by the concerted effort that was put into closing down many of the questions that we raised in the call-in notice.

“It is right that we put on the record the whole picture, so that everyone can see how misjudged and ill-informed the basis for closing Clair Hall was.”

The minority report suggests:

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

• Claims in the cabinet report that usage and footfall at the hall were in decline were incorrect.

The footfall figures in the cabinet report compared totalled data for years 2016/17 with 2019/20.

The detailed figures for the four years from 2016/17 to 2019/20 provided in the show a fuller picture.

In the 11 months prior to closure in March, footfall had risen by more than five per cent from the same period in the previous year.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Meanwhile apart from the dressing rooms, the utilisation of all the facilities in Clair Hall has increased every year over the last three years.

• Claims in the cabinet report that Clair Hall is very energy inefficient are misleading

• Alternative options to permanent closure were not seriously entertained by MSDC

The minority report details how a number of community groups were working together to create a viable business plan for continuing to operate Clair Hall at no cost to the council until a replacement facility is secured. The authors believe it was ‘imprudent to ignore this potential option’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They also ask why the assumption was made in the cabinet report about it not being possible to reopen Clair Hall under the current Covid-19 guidance when other venues in the area have reopened or announced plans to reopen citing the Village Centre in Hurstpierpoint, Cyprus Hall in Burgess Hill, Adastra Hall in Hassocks and The Capitol in Horsham.

• The decision was taken without the level and type of public consultation that it justified

The minority report says: “Cabinet must use this opportunity to fully consult the public by taking account of the views of hall users and the very large number of residents who feel strongly about this matter.”

Richard Bates, a Lib Dem Hayward Heath district councillor, said: “Thank you to all my fellow residents who have written to me about Clair Hall. I want to encourage people to spend a few minutes reading the minority report so that they can see for themselves the gap between the full facts and what MSDC presented to the public.”