Thursday 8 November 2007, 8.00 - 9.30pm
Doors open 7.30pm for exhibition and free refreshments.
Our Lady of Grace Junior School, Dollis Hill Lane, NW2 6HS
Dollis Hill House Trust is working with the social enterprise charity Training For Life on a plan to renovate Dollis Hill House. This may well be the last chance to save this historic local landmark for the local community.
Gordon D'Silva, the Chief Executive of Training For Life, will explain the plans.
This is your opportunity to have your say.
Dollis Hill House featured on BBC TV
The campaign to restore Dollis Hill House will be featured on Inside Out on BBC1 on Wednesday 24 October, 7.30pm. It will then be available to view online for the following week at www.bbc.co.uk/insideout
Chance to save DHH
On 11 September 2007, Brent Council reported on its marketing campaign for the house. It voted to give Training For Life (TFL) three months to draw up a business plan for restoring DHH. TFL is working with DHHT to create a Prospect Centre that brings training, regeneration and social enterprise to the community. This will include a restaurant/café, with rooms for events, weddings and arts activities. DHHT is working with TFL to ensure it includes the community uses that local people want. The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has met with the council and is meeting TFL with DHHT. It seems keen to fund a way to save the house. We have some funds for the feasibility study but need YOUR help to top these up and to make sure the house is saved. If the business plan cannot be completed by December, the council has said it will take the necessary steps to demolish the house. This is the LAST CHANCE. We will be holding a public meeting in the autumn. HAVE YOUR SAY about plans for the house or make a DONATION payable to DHHT.
Campaign update, 23rd March
DHHT trustees have been working very hard in the last six weeks in partnership with Brent Council to ensure that the marketing of the house by Knight Frank, Brent\'s agents, leads to a successful renovation with community access and use, supported by commercial elements to sustain its long-term viability. Trustees have identified and approached organisations that they thought could achieve this. They have also attended all five house viewing dates arranged by Knight Frank and spoken to most of the potential bidders that attended them. They have met with interested parties in the Stables to discuss possible options on a number of occasions. They have held trustee meetings at roughly two-week intervals to monitor the progress of the marketing strategy, on 18 January, 2, 15 and 26 February, and 8 and 15 March.
Some particular prospective partners that were informed about the house by the trust were keen to bid and wanted to ensure that their proposals would provide a suitable mix of community access and business use. The trust considered their draft bid in detail and offered them suggestions to ensure appropriate community access and use. Trustees also met a number of other potential funders and future users of the house. Although these organisations were not in a position to make a bid at present, they indicated that they would be prepared to work in partnership with the preferred bidders to enhance the community work at the refurbished house. As one option for the land area that Brent Council offered to bidders included the Stables building, representatives of Brent Arts Council were invited to participate in the various discussions to ensure that the arts centre could thrive under bidders’ proposals.
We understand that a number of bids were submitted to Knight Frank by the deadline of 16 March. After they have been evaluated, officers will present a report to the Council Executive meeting on Tuesday 29 May. DHHT Trustees will continue to monitor the progress of this procedure and provide support and advice wherever possible. We will also seek to ensure that the final outcome not only saves Dollis Hill House, but also provides for the maximum community and arts use possible in the complex. The offer from the Mayor of London of 50% of the cost of the refurbishment still lies on the table and obviously will be of great assistance in providing capital funding for the project and to preserve the community aspect.
The DHHT January 2007 newsletter was delivered to 20,000 households. It brought forward a number of interested parties from the local community who expressed an interest in the bidding process. It was also instrumental in finding new volunteers and a new trustee, Vivienne Hahn, to help us save the house.
Mayor Pledges Financial Support
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has written to Brent Council Leader, Paul Lorber pledging his continuing support for the renovation of Dollis Hill House for community and other purposes. In his letter, copied to the Trust he goes further than before in pledging a contribution of up to half the capital costs of the renovation.
Of course this contribution must be matched, and the Trust is currently working in partnership with Brent Council to bring serious proposals together. These proposals will need to identify where the rest of the capital comes from and include for essential revenue income to underpin the robust business plan that the Dollis Hill House Trust has prepared.
Ken Livingstone’s personal support for the restoration proposals for the house go back a long way. He remains a local resident in the area and was for a number of years the Member of Parliament for Brent East where the house is located. He has always believed that a mixed use, community and other purposes was the right way forward. He personally encouraged investigating a partnership with the local Primary Care Trust when the previous local council administration withdrew support for the plans to develop the house through application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. This is the first time that there has been a pledge of money from the Greater London Authority to make this longed-for restoration a reality.
Outcome of 9 Oct executive meeting
At a Brent Council Executive meeting on 9th October, the new administration debated the future of Dollis Hill House.
The meeting took place in the knowledge of the previous Administration's decision to demolish the building taken in late 2003. Since that time, Dollis Hill House Trust campaigners have worked tirelessly to keep the project alive. Meetings were held with English Heritage who reminded the Council that the Listed status building could not be torn down until Brent Council had demonstrated beyond doubt that all possible solutions had been explored. This was clearly not the case and soon it was established by the Council that Brent Teaching Primary Care Trust (tPCT) were interested in refurbishing the building for its own use. A feasibility study by the tPCT went on for nearly a year and finally they decided that the building refurbishment was out of their financial reach.
In the meantime the Trust carried out amendments to, and appraisals of its own Business Plan for the building and in June 2006 a meeting was held with the new Leader of Brent Council following the May election. A more positive response was obtained allowing us to take our proposals to the Executive meeting with some confidence.
At the Executive meeting a number of possible options were considered by the Council Members. Martin Redston on behalf of the Trust addressed the meeting and reminded them of the importance of providing a Community and Arts Facility in the building. He pointed out that the Business plan had been substantially revised and that, following the Mayor of London's intervention with a pledge of more than £1.5m, potential business partners had come forward to help. He urged that the Council would give more time to develop the latest plans, to assign a Council Officer to assist with fundraising and to provide some match funding cash to help with the costs of redevolpment. The members of the Executive were unsure of the exact nature of the Mayor's offer and agreed to obtain clarification from him. In the meantime they decided to actively market the building to any prospective purchasers, but not to allow a fully commercial solution that might exclude the community. In fact the Council Leader made it clear that he would not tolerate another 'pub in the park' solution which had been considered by the previous administration some five years ago.
The Executive then went on to allow the Trust a few more weeks to continue their discussions with their potential partners and requested a full report with financially viable draft business plan to be submitted in time for the next Council Executive meeting in January 2007.
Since the Executive meeting, further meetings have been held at the site with the potential business partners and a progress report will be posted on the DHHT website in the next few days.
Gladstonbury 2007 dates set for Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th June
Dollis Hill House Trust, working in partnership with Gladstone Park Consultatative Committee, SEB Collective, Petworth Sounds and Brent Parks Service, are aiming to make the next Gladstonbury Festival a 2-day event. We intend to feature a quality line-up of signed and un-signed artists on the Saturday, providing live music between 2 and 8pm. Food and drink stalls will also be available. Sunday will incorporate the music festival with a family/fun day featuring the usual combination of stalls, food, Woofstock dog show, sports and fun fair. This day will also include an “open mic” session, giving local musicians the opportunity to turn up and perform.
Current plans are subject to confirmation and receipt of funding. Please contact us if you can help us to develop our plans!
There are lots of ways to get involved!
Volunteers for organising and running the event contact:
E: judithrobinson@bulldoghome.com
T: 020 8452 3044
To book a stall contact:
reby2000@hotmail.com.
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