Friends of Abbeyfield Park recently attended the Burngreave Ward Meeting on Thursday 11th October 2012 at Vestry Hall to discuss the options and raise opinions and issues over the future of Abbeyfield House.
A working group has been meeting, as part of an overall project (an asset audit) designed to rationalise Council expenditure on buildings. This working group, including Cllr. Ibrar Hussain, has been considering how to manage the overall portfolio of Council properties in Burngreave (excluding housing). The group used various criteria to make their decisions namely: sustainability, usage, maintenance backlog, public opinion. These were marked as red/amber/green depending on status. If a given asset became red (it appears this is low usage and poor condition for Abbeyfield House) then the working group looked at other provision/space in the area for the groups using the building currently.
The working group had made a decision on their ‘preferred option’ for Abbeyfield House which they would be recommending to Council: the current tenants (the Messenger and Green City Action were named) should be re-located to other premises. Following a decision on the ‘preferred option’ the working group have identified three potential follow up options for Abbeyfield House:
Sale
Lease (e.g. to a doctors’ practice)
Handover to “the community”
The Councillors (Jackie Drayton, Ibrar Hussain, Peter Price) emphasised that the working group’s ‘preferred option’ had not been approved by Councillors or the council’s decision-making process – they emphasised the Council had made no decisions. Cllr. Jackie Drayton made two further important points: she was clear the building should have essential repairs carried out and she told David Hempshall the house was under-occupied because of the state of disrepair – the council is not letting out rooms which have holes in the ceiling. An observation was also made that community groups can’t just take on huge liabilities like this.
If you would like to find out more about Abbeyfield House, there is another meeting on Thursday 25 October 2012 at 8pm in the community Room at Abbeyfield House, where issues will be discussed in more detail.