Ownership Issues raised by the Planning Agreement in relation to St Georges Theatre

A sequence of events which probably merits a public enquiry resulted in St Georges Theatre having become the private property of House On The Rock (HOTR) in the early months of 2003 thereby ceasing to be a community asset.

The building became occupied between September 2004 and October 2005 in the spirit of “direct action” by an environmentally aware group called Circle Community who as voluntary “caretakers” allowed access to international radical performers on a shared-income basis, as well as opening its doors to the local community for informal daytime activities, eg mother and toddler groups, computer access, as well as major community events - an inclusive policy which demonstrated the potential for a much wider use of the space, that had not, to our knowledge, been tried before, when it was mainly used for formal theatrical productions. This positive experiment was curtailed oon Tuesday 11th October 2005, when HOTR, ignoring the fact that a High Court appeal on Circle Community’s occupancy was pending, procured the services of Islington Police to forcibly remove the occupants. The building is now fenced and guarded night and day.

This occupancy only occurred after many years of deplorable mishandling and wrangling buetween various parties over the ownership of the space, whilst its doors remained closed. However, what is now occurring does not promise an happy resolution of the situation, and we are concerned that this unique building should be preserved as a community asset and that any redevelopment should be sustainable both in terms of finance and in terms of the energy efficiency of the proposals.

Turning first to Finance we are concerned that even before the building is redeveloped, HOTR found it necessary to borrow from Barclays Bank and we do not feel that this augurs well either for the long-term financial stability of St Georges or for the ability of HOTR to charge an affordable rental for community use once the project has been completed.

As a constructive proposal we therefore put forward a simple alternative "Community Land Partnership" enterprise model whereby the Community may invest alongside HOTR in the redevelopment of St George's in return for consensually agreed and reasonable usage of the building as a Theatre as distinct from the one-sided and unreasonable policy currently being imposed.

The basic concept is to ensure that the ownership and use of major community facilities such as St Georges Theatre can be secured for the community, so that the land cannot be sold on the open market. In this way, the buildings come into "co-ownership", and the users work in co-operation in a partnership to manage the space. We have already taken the first steps towards setting this up for St Georges Theatre, but resources are needed to develop the project.

This partnership model is designed to foster co-operative rather than confrontational and competitive behaviour amongst the various stakeholder groups involved, namely:
• the Land-owner, a "Trustee" or "Custodian" body representing the local community, constituted as a trust or Company Limited by Guarantee
• the Co-investors in the building, including HOTR initially and introducing "ethical investors" and possibly the local community themselves - grant-aid could also be part of the package
• the Users of the building - a collaborative consortium of many different community groups of which HOTR could be the first
• a "Development/Management" member to oversee and administer the partnership
• designated Representatives from the local authority
• and any theatrical, architectural and environmental Advisory groups.

The model is more fully described here

In relation to the building itself while the architectural plans were approved by Islington council in February 2005 they are defective in many respects, not the least of which is the lack of consideration given to the impact upon the environment in terms of energy efficiency (or lack of it) and the damage inflicted upon the unique acoustics and ambience of the central space of the main building. These have been condemned by architectural and planning commentators as disastrous for the acoustics and historical status of St Georges Theatre. Read more about this in the paper on Architectural Issues.

One of the benefits of the Community Land Partnership model is that it is more cost effective to develop in an energy efficient way since the model essentially takes into account the total cost of ownership over time including energy use. In fact we believe that in terms of energy use alone the project plans should be reviewed and amended.

It is therefore immediately urgent to prevent the start of building works based on these plans. We are therefore supporting the presentation of a co-ordinated appeal to the authorities concerned as soon as possible.

Through dialogue with the current owners, the local authority, community organisations and funding authorities we envisage that a fruitful and long-term solution can then be negotiated for the future of the building.

We are aware that this solution may seem too radical for some, however there are successful precedents both in rural communities and inner-city projects elsewhere, and in the context of the current impasse, which threatens to fracture the community around St Georges, we believe a partnership solution is the only way forward.

Chris Cook
www.partnershipsconsulting.com
25th October 2005