Minutes:
The Chairman set out the order and explained procedure for this item.
1) Question from Ms. Inglesfield:
Issue: Closure of Clair Hall
MSDC decided to close CH on the basis that “there are many other suitable venues in the close proximity”. The Event and Community Officer of HHTC reported during last week’s E&GP committee meeting that, after communicating with the NHS Blood Donation service and obtaining from them their venue specifications, she was unable to locate a suitable venue in HH. For my next blood donation, I will travel all the way to Brighton. The complication, time and money involved are prohibitive for numerous HH donors. HH, 35000 inhabitants, unable to host blood donations. What detailed, costed solution do you offer?
Response from Cabinet Member for Environment and Service Delivery – Cllr John Belsey
Thank you for your question.
Officers are working closely with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) to help that organisation identify alternative local venues for the blood donation service in Haywards Heath. NHSBT has very stringent requirements for venues but I can confirm MSDC has offered our own site at Oaklands. NHSBT are also looking at other venues in the town including certain local schools and the St Francis site and personally I hope they can come to a decision soon as to where they propose to carry out further blood donor sessions in Haywards Heath. To be clear the decision as to venue will be for NHSBT to determine, not any of our local Councils, although we are providing as much assistance as we can in order to aid their decision-making process.
Until a new venue for blood donations in Haywards Heath is available, although you may choose to travel to Brighton, I can confirm to other residents that it is not necessary for anyone to have to travel to Brighton to donate blood. There are regular sessions in Burgess Hill, Hassocks, East Grinstead and Crawley Down, as well as in Crawley and Uckfield, all of which are of course nearer to Haywards Heath than Brighton.
Ms Inglesfield posed a supplementary question. She noted that the Council committed itself to advise Clair Hall users like the blood donation service to help them find a suitable alternative venue in close proximity and asked what is the Council’s advice to the other users? The Cabinet Member agreed to provide a written response.
2) Question from Mr Kenward:
Issue: Closure of Clair Hall
With many theatres and multi-use venues taking advantage of grants from the Culture Recovery Fund made available from the Arts Council did Mid Sussex District Council apply for, or consider applying for a grant in respect of Clair Hall? and if not, why not?
Response from Cabinet Member for Environment and Service Delivery – Cllr John Belsey
Thank you for your question.
This fund was administered by the Arts Council, specifically targeted at supporting music, theatre, dance, combined arts, visual arts, museums or literature. Since 75% of the activity at Clair Hall over recent years has not been of this nature, Mid Sussex District Council decided not to make an application to the Cultural Recovery Fund on the grounds that it was considered extremely unlikely such an application would have been successful and that officer time would be spent more productively on the many other activities and demands placed upon the Council during this pandemic. Given that Chequer Mead Theatre in East Grinstead which does provide a year-round theatre venue made an application which was sadly unsuccessful we remain firmly of the view that the Council would not have received any funding through such an application for Clair Hall.
However, I am pleased to note that four performing arts companies/organisations registered in Mid Sussex received grants from the Fund totalling over £260k.
Mr Kenward posed a supplementary question regarding revenue. He asked that if Clair Hall was allowed to reopen (managed by whoever), and should the Council also proceed with a plan to open a pay-and-display car park on the site, could the revenue from the car park be invested back into the hall to alleviate the financial burden from the Council that has possibly helped lead to its demise. The Cabinet Member agreed to provide a written response.
3) Question from Mr Shelley:
Issue: Playing Pitch Strategy
Good evening Councillors, I’m Bob Shelley and I Chair East Grinstead Sports Council. We have, with our sports clubs, participated in, and followed with close interest, the development of the Council’s Playing Pitches Study. When will the Study and its Implementation Plan be presented to full Council for adoption, as was recommended in the Scrutiny Committee for Community & Service Delivery report - Agenda item 7 - on 8 July 2020?
Response from Cabinet Member for Community – Cllr Norman Webster
Thank you for your question Mr Shelley. May I start by thanking you and the East Grinstead Sports Council for your involvement and interest in sport and the very real benefits it provides. I believe government recognised these benefits in the early days of Covid lockdown, hence their generous financial support to local sports bodies.
In terms of your question the Council remains committed to investing in local playing pitch provision, not least because of the positive impacts it has on the health and wellbeing of our communities. This is now of course more important than ever.
The Playing Pitch Study is an important evidence base, and I stress evidence base, which supports the Council’s direction of travel. It is part of the background work requested by the District Plan examiner, so does not need to be formally adopted by Council.
In fact, the Council is already implementing the objectives and actions in the Study. Some recent examples of which are the introduction of the Club Spark booking system for tennis, the commissioning of pitch drainage surveys, which I know to be a concern in East Grinstead and early preparatory work for the implementation of the Centre for Outdoor Sports in Burgess Hill.
For the benefit of people who might be viewing this meeting, Objective 5 is to create a delivery framework for people and organisations to work together to share skills, expertise, resources and facilities in implementing the Study.
It is planned for the Steering Group to be reconvened in the New Year – unfortunately, this has been delayed as a result of the pandemic. Representation will include: Mid Sussex District Council’s Community Services, Commercial Services & Contracts and Planning and a number of national and regional bodies.
Mr Shelley posed a supplementary question asking if the sports community of East Grinstead and wider district can count on the 5 objectives in the implementation plan (which are the 5 things summarised as the way forward) being met and in what sort of timescale? The Cabinet Member agreed to provide a written response.