quorn village website

The Old School - Your Chance To Vote

Updated September 3rd 2007

What’s it all about?
Quorn Parish Council has been offered the chance to buy the ‘Old St Bartholomew’s School’. A condition requires that it be used by and for the community. If the Parish Council does not buy the school, it will be sold on the open market. Then, it is likely that the site will be redeveloped for private use, possibly entailing demolition of the old buildings. The Parish Council is consulting with the village to decide what to do.

This is your opportunity to make your voice heard. You can influence the decision.

The Old School, Quorn Village

What is the story of the 'Old School’?
The Old School lies in the eastern corner of Stafford Orchard on School Lane. Some parts of the building date from 1834. When the village outgrew the premises the ‘new’ St Bartholomew’s school was built in 1969 off Warwick Avenue. At that time ownership of the old school transferred from the Church to Leicestershire County Council. Since then the old buildings have been used by various organisations including a dance school, a play school and as an annexe for examinations by Rawlins.

Virtually no repair or maintenance has been undertaken for several decades. The buildings have deteriorated and are now boarded up and unoccupied. In 2006 LCC decided to sell the whole site on the open market.

The Old School, Quorn Village

Quorn Parish Council took the view that the old school is an important part of the village’s heritage. It could and should be restored to provide a whole range of community amenities. Following an exchange of letters, talks at County Hall and a public meeting in Quorn Village Hall, Leicestershire County Council agreed to sell the building to Quorn Parish Council provided a tight timescale could be met. A local pressure group called STOPS (Save The Old Primary School) was formed. Its aim was to explore ways of funding such a purchase and return it to community use. You will probably have seen their publicity and activities in the village.

The options for funding the purchase of the old school have been reduced to two. It is now decision time. Both options involve important issues and Quorn Parish Council decided it would not be acceptable to choose either option without the support of the village. That is what this vote is about.

The purchase price is of course not the whole funding story. Repair and restoration costs will be substantial. These costs will be sought mainly from grants and other sources.

What is the deal?
Leicestershire County Council has agreed to sell the old school to Quorn Parish Council for £300,000 provided that contracts can be exchanged by the end of 2007. Payment would be by two equal stages in April 2008 and April 2009. There are various terms and conditions attached to the sale but these are reasonable and acceptable given the nature of the offer.

How can the money be raised?

There are only two options for raising the required funds:

Option 1:
Raise the money over the 2 years through an increase in the parish precept

The parish precept is collected as part of your Council Tax. We would need to collect an extra £150,000 each year to fund the purchase. Every household would contribute. As a guide, this would mean an additional £70 per year on the Council Tax of a band D property for the next two years.

This is the most straightforward option. If, after purchase, the refurbishment cannot proceed the Parish Council would sell the site on the open market. Proceeds from this sale would be returned to householders by a reduction in the parish precept in subsequent years.

Option 2:
Raise the money by selling a major asset - the Village Hall

The Village Hall is the only major saleable asset that the Parish owns. This route would be more complex. It would probably raise more than enough for the purchase, so there would be some funds left for repair and restoration. The structure of the sale would provide capital for the staged payments required to acquire the old school with the purchaser taking possession of the Village Hall when alternative facilities were up-and-running in the old school.

Quorn Village Hall

The third option 3:
Do not purchase the Old School

You may choose not to support the purchase of the Old School. In this case the site will be sold and redeveloped.

A voting form will be delivered to your Quorn household. On the back page, you are asked to choose between the three options.

Further Information

Press Release
22nd August 2007 - download PDF

Questions and Answers
Information reviewing the issues - click here

Groups Involved

Quorn Parish Council
This web page and the consultation document that will be delivered to your Quorn household has been prepared by a sub-committee within Quorn Parish Council. The Council felt that the various issues surrounding the saving of the Old School were sufficiently important to warrant a consultation with the entire village. The intention is therefore to canvass the village impartially to determine what residents feel is the preferred route to saving the Old School, or indeed letting it go for development.

STOPS - Save The Old Primary School
STOPS is an action group chaired by Terry Stirling. The Group's broad agenda is to look at all available routes to allow the Old School to be purchased and developed for community use. There have been features in The Quorndon from STOPS, and they did an initial questionnaire earlier this year.

QUARTS - Quorn Arts
QUARTS are distributing flyers and posters around the village in support of retaining the existing village hall, ie ruling out its disposal to fund the purchase of the Old School. QUARTS organises an ongoing programme of events in the existing village hall. Some members of QUARTS are also members of STOPS.

Points to consider when deciding how to vote

1. The old school is part of the historic centre of the village. It closely links with the park at Stafford Orchard. The Parish Council are already seeking Lottery funding to improve the park.

2. The cost of the acquisition, at £300,000, is large for the village but this is a one-off chance to acquire the old school.

3. The acquisition of the old school would be a big step for the village to take. Refurbishing, maintaining and running the old school will take energy, commitment and drive. The Parish Council would need to work with many local groups, including STOPS, to raise the necessary funds and plan the work.

The Parish Council is committed to taking on the project with community support and has demonstrated how it can work successfully with the community in the on-going lottery bid application to renovate the park.

park entrance sign The park lottery bid application is a wide-ranging scheme, but in essence it aims to:

Improve the appearance of all of the park entrances
Improve access to the park by improving paths and adding paths to currently unutilised areas
Promote events in the park by installing a purpose-built performance area to host bands, concerts, plays etc.
Promote heritage information
Upgrade play equipment for young children and teenagers
Add more seating and picnic facilities near to the brook
Improve the park's support facilities, ie toilets, information boards
Improve the perception of safety and security

A news feature on this website from February 2007 gives more background information - Parks for People Lottery Bid.

4. The old school has the potential for transformation into a large multi-purpose building. It is bigger than the Village Hall with different styles of accommodation possible.

5. The Village Hall is used extensively by the community and we often have to turn bookings away.

6. The village has already indicated strong interest in preserving the school, with many suggestions for use. As examples, these have included rehearsal and performance spaces; meeting rooms; areas for use by the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and other organisations; use as a youth centre; better facilities for the park, including toilets and a cafe. Two suggestions - involving local arts, a local library/museum centre - would greatly add to the cultural centre of the village and are likely to enhance any approach for funding for refurbishment.

7. If the decision is to sell the Village Hall, there will need to be careful planning to ensure we do not disrupt the many local people and community groups that use its facilities.

8. There are plans in place to make improvements to the Village Hall to make it meet current legal requirements for a community building. If the hall is sold, these plans will obviously not go ahead and the funds would then be available for the old school.

Quorn Stafford Orchard (the park)

How to place your vote:

1. When you receive your voting form:

Put a 1 against the option you favour most

If you wish, put a 2 against your next preferred option and a 3 against your least preferred option. If you do this ALL your choices will be taken into account.

2. Deliver the form by either:

• Placing it in the ballot box in the Parish Office, or
• Dropping it through the Parish Office letter box, or
• Posting it to the Parish Office

If posting your vote, send to:

‘Ballot’
Quorn Parish Council
7 High Street
Quorn,
LE12 8DS

The Parish Office is in the centre of the village, adjacent to Hetterley's Estate Agents and opposite The Quorn Exchange Restaurant.

ALL VOTES MUST BE RECEIVED ON OR BEFORE FRIDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER

ANY VOTES RECEIVED AFTER THIS DATE WILL NOT BE COUNTED.
ONE VOTE PER HOUSEHOLD

For security purposes, voting forms are uniquely marked. Checks will be
carried out to confirm that returns have been made correctly.

Further Information

Village Hall Address and Location:
64 Leicester Road
Quorn
Leicestershire
LE12 8BB

See location on Google Maps
See aerial view of the park - download JPG (190Kbytes)

Questions and Answers
Information reviewing the issues - click here

Contact
To discuss any of the information above, please contact:

Councillor Georgina Glover
Email:
Phone: 01509 827419

quorn village website in leicestershire, uk