Third time lucky? Multi-million-pound community hub plans revived in New Milton
MULTI-MILLION-POUND plans to transform New Milton Memorial Centre into a thriving hub for the town have been revived.
Following years of on-and-off discussions, the town council together with the trustees of the centre off Whitefield Road want to push ahead with the scheme to refurbish and expand the building to create a community and cultural centre for the area.
As previously reported in the A&T, this could involve adding an extension that would open out onto the north-east side of the town council-owned war memorial recreation ground.
It is hoped the building will become a central venue for educational, recreational and social benefit with a wide range of facilities including a cinema, provision for arts and community activities and events, and a café.
Speaking at Monday’s meeting of the amenities committee, Clive Rigden, chairman of the trustees for the memorial centre, expressed his gratitude to the town council for the support it had shown towards the scheme.
“We did have an attempt about 12 years ago to redevelop the centre, but this was not successful,” he recalled.
“There was a second attempt about four years ago, which did excite the interest of the people of New Milton, and that interest has stayed.”
Outlining the centre’s economic situation, which had not been so healthy a few years ago, Mr Rigden said it was now “well in the black” and “more than covering our costs”. This was attributed to a surge in bookings for a wide variety of community activities and events.
Following three meetings of the working party, which includes representatives of the memorial centre and the town council, he believed they were all moving in the same direction.
“We can turn the existing centre into a much-needed community and cultural hub,” Mr Rigden continued.
“I’m very hopeful that with your support, we can make headway because the town wants it. I’m looking forward to working with the members of the working group and coming back to the town council with a good proposal.”
Dozens of residents welcomed the hub plans when they were set out at a special presentation meeting held at New Milton Community Centre in May 2016, with a cost of up to £6.5m estimated at that time.
An outline had already been presented in September the previous year to the town council which voiced its support.
Responding to Mr Rigden’s report on Monday, amenities chairman Cllr Geoffrey Blunden explained the working party had been meeting up to discuss the scheme for some time. He described the memorial centre redevelopment as a large strategic scheme for New Milton.
Cllr Alan O’Sullivan said: “I’m very excited by this. I was on the previous working party, but when the recession came, we lost out on our chance of funding. The government is now telling us we’re not in a recession anymore, so hopefully we will do better this time.
“We’ve come together jointly and both agree we’d like to set up a joint trust. This would make a fantastic site for us to have and it would be the jewel in the town’s crown.”
Explaining the working group had agreed to appoint a solicitor with specialist knowledge of charity commissions, Cllr O’Sullivan pointed out “seed funding” would be needed to move things forward.
“We can then go to the charity commission and say, ‘Can we please form this new trust?’,” he said.
Proposing that the sum of up to £4,000 be taken from the amenities committee’s budget, he stressed that it could be taken from reserves if there is not enough left in the pot at the end of the council year.
Although also voicing his excitement for the plans, Cllr David Hawkins expressed concerns about the first few steps involving the joining up of the sites owned by the memorial centre trustees and the town council.
“If this is made into one piece of land, we must have a condition on it that the land doesn’t get given over to housing.
“It worries me that we are the custodian of that little plot of land in front of the memorial building for our residents. It is important that whatever goes on that land doesn’t get sold for housing or shops.”
However, Cllr Blunden sought to assure members the whole point of the land being looked after by a charity commission was to ensure this sort of thing does not happen.
Cllr Hawkins was also unhappy with Cllr O’Sullivan’s proposal that the £4,000 be taken from the amenities budget or reserves and argued the council and the centre trustees should instead split the cost between them.
Stressing to members the initial talks on combining ownership of the land were a starting point for the centre redevelopment, Cllr Blunden pointed out there was “a lot of detail to go through”.
On the subject of continued costs of the scheme, Cllr Steve Clarke said it is referred to in the upcoming Neighbourhood Plan which sets out ideas to improve the town centre.
This means it could benefit from part of a substantial grant from the Future High Streets Fund which the council plans to bid for by the end of March.
“This funding could be up to £25m,” Cllr Clarke said. “I stress ‘up to’, and at the moment we have no money.
“We have to attract more people into our high streets in innovative and creative ways, and the centre plan could come under that.
“We’re currently looking at the fine detail of how much we can bid for, but I think it’s a compliment to this town that we are considered a major town in the New Forest that qualifies for making a bid.
“So it’s fingers crossed now, although it’s a sign that this town is well on its way to being put on the map.”
Members agreed by a majority vote to push through Cllr O’Sullivan’s recommendation to siphon £4,000 from the amenities budget or reserves into the legal discussions on the land. Cllr Hawkins abstained from the vote.
Cllr Blunden concluded: “I think there are tremendously exciting times ahead for the town and let’s hope we can see it through.”
