Town poll scrapped

A pensioner has abandoned his plans of calling for a referendum on whether or not Bingham Town Council should give £400,000 towards building a church and community centre.

Mr Markham Dawn (77) of Rothbury Grove, Bingham, called for a parish poll to be held, over the proposal to help Bingham Methodist Church with its £1.9m project, late last year.

He believed the council should not contribute to the centre that would only benefit a few in the town, and felt the money could be better spent

But he has given up on the idea, saying it would be a waste of money as he believes the development is unlikely to go ahead.

Mr Dawn said: “There is no point in it. The Methodist Church is just a pipe dream. It’s been knocked on the head.”

He said the Methodists’ bid for lottery money towards the project had failed, and no application had been made to Rushcliffe Borough Council to use part of Bingham’s community chest.

Mr Dawn said: “They can carry on making all the talk about the Methodist Church, but if they haven’t got the money then it will never come to fruition.”

He also said he could not cope with the amount of work involved in a referendum because of his poor health.

Mr Dawn said he had gained quite a lot of support and said someone might continue trying to organise the referendum without him.

Six electors must ask the town council to hold a public meeting for a referendum to take place.

At this meeting a vote would be held to see whether or not people were in favour of the poll.

If ten people, or a third of those at the meeting, whichever was less, vote for the poll, it would go ahead.

A referendum would be held in a similar way to council elections, with residents having their say at polling stations.

It would be organised by Rushcliffe Borough Council but paid for by the town council.

The Methodist Church has planning permission for the new church and community centre and work is expected to start next year.

A new building is needed because of the age of the current one, and to meet disability requirements.

Bingham Reconstruction and Development group has raised just over £500,000 towards the project so far and has applied to various organisations for grants.