SOS SAVE OUR SCOUT HUT AND SCOUT GROUP

SOS SAVE OUR SCOUT HUT AND SCOUT GROUP

Started
8 January 2020
Petition to
St. Albans District Council / Daisy Cooper
Signatures: 10,573Next Goal: 15,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by PATRICIA HALL

Help us to secure a new lease so that Scouting can continue to thrive in Colney Heath.

In 2016 we asked Colney Heath Parish Council for renewal of our lease (which we had had for forty years) and were given early assurances that a lease would be ‘just a case of renegotiating the terms’. However, the council chose not to renew our lease stating that the HQ had fallen into disrepair.  We have continually informed the Council they we are very happy to fund and make any necessary repairs.

In April 2018 the Parish Council offered renting options of £15,000 annual rent(!) or an hourly rent of £12.50 per hour.  Clearly these were unacceptable, unreasonable and so far out of line with the historic arrangement (ie a peppercorn rent of £50 per year) the Group had no alternative but to reject the offer.

At the same time the Parish Council took legal ownership of the Scout HQ and added the building to their Asset Register at a value of £558,000 - nearly half of their total assets!

In December 2019 the Parish Council evicted the Scouts locking them out of the HQ that they paid for and built. The Council offered an unacceptable short-term license to use the HQ for a maximum of four months and gave no surety for the future.

This resulted in much anger and pain in the community.  At a Parish Council meeting in December 2019 the Community came out in force to denounce the eviction of the Scouts.

Since that time the building has stood empty, enclosed by locked gates and weeds.

In February 2021 the Parish Council finally issued a proposed draft Heads of Terms agreement outlining headline conditions for a 20 year lease. The Council advised the Scouts to take legal advice which they did at a cost of £900. In June 2021 the Council said the draft heads of terms were no longer valid and they were investigating the demolition of the Scout HQ in order to build a different type of community building.

The Parish Council say that the Scouts would be involved in the planning of any new building but an architects plan has already been drawn up without any discussion at all with the Scouts. The drawing was presented as a 'feasibility study' which clearly it is not - it is a drawing of a proposed new building! The Council are now seeking pre-planning advice.

PLEASE SIGN OUR PETITION to show your support for the Scout Group in Colney Heath and help us to lobby the Parish Council to agree another fair and reasonable 20 year lease agreement.

Visit the campaign website here www.saveourscouthut.org.uk 

 

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Signatures: 10,573Next Goal: 15,000
Support now
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Decision-Makers

  • St. Albans District Council / Daisy Cooper