A new steering group will be formed to refine bids for the Ventnor Winter Gardens, an Isle of Wight public meeting heard earlier this week.
Ventnor and St Lawrence’s Conservative county councillor Ed Blake told attendees at Salisbury Gardens a new committee was the “best way forward” and would be “entirely transparent”.
The packed-out forum was called after Cllr Blake announced at the beginning of this month that the Hambrough Group would like to sell the Art Deco style pavilion which has fallen into disrepair.
County Hall has now accepted the facility as an Asset of Community Value (ACV), meaning its owner cannot dispose of it until interested community groups have had the chance to register an interest in buying it.
Cllr Blake said:
“In the time that I’ve been a councillor – coming up to 2 years at Christmas – I’ve had at least two dozen potential bidders signify to me that they are still interested in the building.
“Some of those are pie in the sky ideas I’d like to say without naming names; some of those are credible proposals.
Article continues below this advertisement “Steve (Witheyman of the Save Ventnor Winter Gardens Action Group) and I have spoken about this – Steve created these meetings – we think the best way forward is initially that they all come in through a steering group to refine them.
“We just want to make sure it (bid) is in a legible form for us as a community to digest – then we can come back to another meeting, as many as needed, whether we look at three or four applications at a time.
“And then say we like that idea as a community – we want to rubber stamp that – we allow them to go on and speak to the owner.”
Responding to a comment from the floor, he said it was “entirely possible” for a Community Interest Company or charitable trust to take over the Winter Gardens.
However, at another point in the evening, Cllr Blake admitted the ACV “mechanism” does not have “particularly strong teeth”, stating Kevin Sussmilch of the Hambrough Group is not obliged to sell the building or “put it on the market” after the six-month bidding period.
The bidding process is still an “opportunity” for the community to spell out how it wants the Winter Gardens to be used however, and how much it thinks the building is worth which Cllr Blake added might be a bit of a “reality check” for Mr Sussmilch. “What would be good is to have an independent professional opinion to say the building is worth this,” he said.
The prospect of the pavilion being listed was also raised, with a member of the public asking if it was “sensible” to try to apply for the heritage status.
A building listed by the government is deemed to be of special architectural or historic interest and has legal protection.
The resident said:
“What it (listing) does do is secure the exterior and quite a lot of the interior of the building.”
Cllr Blake answered that he would “leave it for others to decide” whether it was a “good idea”.
However, he told attendees that “someone from the national listing register” had contacted him to ask “a lot of questions” about the building after noticing its ACV designation.
The building is worth what Sussmilch paid for it £1 plus a little more £1, so £2 in total, thereby doubling his profit in a couple of years.
In reality of course, as a “property” developer, he will want at least £500,000.
S.W.A.G. (Save Wintergardens Action Group) will no doubt be looking at public donations/subscriptions to further their ambitions.
Isle of Wight Council should have done the right thing years ago and demolished the unsafe, not fit for purpose, eyesore and asked for bids to replace it with a new multipurpose building.
Instead of which it has become another floating bridge type debacle.
Well done to all concerned.
What a strange, deluded and inaccurate comment given the support for this, er, multipurpose, much-loved building
When an old councillor by the name of George Brown did a deal for a £1 with his sailing buddy to take over the Winter Gardens it was doomed to fail. Sussmilch could not be any further removed from being a publican. Nothing against him personally but no charisma, personality just totally inept. At least when Graham Perks had it it was busy.. why because Graham is an old school publican.