A Victorian community hall could be sold to a hotel developer by the local council, if it cannot be saved by a campaign.
Sitting next to Ealing Town Hall, the Victoria Hall was built by public subscription in the 1800sm and in 1893 a charitable trust was set up to manage the hall as a community asset, with Ealing Council as the trustee.
That has put the council in the position of being able to sell the hall, and is seeking permission from the Charities Commission to change the terms of the charity that owns the hall.
The sale would be for a 250-year lease to the hotel group, who plan to turn the old council building into a hotel, and demolish part of the Victoria Hall, while offering a limited 10-year access to the hall for the community.
In exchange, the council is offering a smaller building elsewhere for some of the loss of space that the redevelopment plans involve.
Originally, the council thought it owned the hall, but when it was pointed out that it’s owned by a charity, they filed with the charities regulator to allow it to sell the Hall as well.
A campaign to stop this exists, and is now raising funds to fight the council and block the change of charity status by the Charities Commission.
Details are here.
Greedy, stupid, short-sighted ….
Let me guess, does Ealing council have a tory majority?
On the contrary, GT, Ealing has a well-entrenched Labour administration and has had for most of the past 50+ years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ealing_London_Borough_Council_elections
This, sadly, is what Labour councils do. For example, the historic library in Lambeth they turned into a private gym.
This is a community hall, it was left to the community, it is an abuse for the council which was entrusted with it, to try to sell it off to a private entity.