Alternative uses for Gilstrap

4:27pm Wed Feb 22, 2012

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Alternative uses will be looked at for Newark’s Gilstrap Centre to stop it being sold to Nottinghamshire County Council for a register office.

Newark and Sherwood District Council is setting up a working party to look at the issue after Mr Roger Jackson, district cabinet member for leisure and museums, said it was felt the possible sale was not the best way forward.

It comes after widespread public opposition against the sale of the historic building that was gifted to the town by Sir William Gilstrap and is run through a charitable trust.

Mr Jackson said: “We have listened to people’s views and a working party is the way forward.”

The council’s general purposes committee, sitting as trustees of the Gilstrap charity, on Thursday agreed to a working party, which will look at possible uses of the centre before its future is decided.

The party will comprise six members of the committee, including all three Newark members, a member of the town council, and three independent people who have shown a particular interest in the issue.

The town clerk, Mr Alan Mellor, will be invited to meetings in an advisory capacity.

The deputy chief executive of the district council, Mrs Kirsty Cole, said the public consultation and meetings over the possible sale to the county council raised issues that needed more exploration.

She said it was suggested that The National Trust or English Heritage might be interested in taking on the building. The possibility of handing over the trusteeship to Newark Town Council also needed to be investigated.

Mrs Cole said it was likely the working party would not meet until late March or early April to ensure they had all the necessary information.

She suggested a meeting be held on May 9 to consider the position further, and the working party could present its findings at whatever stage they had reached.

Mrs Cole said: “There are a lot of complex legal issues that need to explored. My view is that the district council cannot withdraw its subsidy from the building without reasonable notice and so we have 12 months to resolve this.”

Mrs Irene Brown proposed the working party idea and said it was important that all the Newark members should sit on it.

Mr Kevin Rontree said after hearing that more information needed to be sought there was no choice but to defer a decision on the future of the centre.

Mrs Christine Rose agreed and said: “In this case the public concerns have been listened to. Hopefully we will get a good solution.”

Mr Tom Bickley said the working party gave the town the chance to get it right.

One of the campaigners against the sale to the county council, Mrs Alex Peace-Gadsby, said they were delighted the district council had valued public opinion and taken positive steps towards the preservation of such a beautiful historic building that the community cared so much about.

“We firmly believe that the building can be run cost-effectively, for the good of the town and tourists, and it’s now up to us to move forward and prove that this is the case,” she said.