GROVE HOUSE

GROVE HOUSE
The continuing rape of Chatteris and the Town Council’s refusual to act !

Once upon a time, Chatteris was a proud market town with fine Civic Offices which in modern parlance provided a ‘one-stop-shop’ service to the town. Then in 1974 along came local government re-organisation and Chatteris’s assets were gifted to the fledgling Fenland District Council in the 1970’s, including the former offices of Chatteris Urban District Council - Grove House.

The historic records of quite how much this golden gift package contained are strangely illusive. FDC’s paperwork was apparently lost years ago in a flood. The County Archive is sadly unable to help. One can only speculate at the current value of this package of assets, but FDC this year sold of one small parcel of land in Chatteris inherited from the U.D.C. for over £1/2 million. The total value of the assets they inherited from Chatteris must now be far in excess of the current costs of both a Leisure Centre & Country Park !

It would appear that the thinking behind the gift of assets was to give the embryonic District Council financial reserves to guarantee its financial health through these initial formative years. But 33 years on from this restructuring, Chatteris remains desperately poor in resources, and FDC has become fantastically wealthy. Despite a £17 million decrease in the consolidated balance sheet for 2005/6 FDC still record assets of £172 million !

In the 1990’s FDC found that the former civic centre of town was no longer required to provide a ‘one stop service’ for Chatteris and decided to get rid of Grove House. Thinking then was that it was better to ‘centralise’ services in March.

But when, at that time, Chatteris Town Council inquired about buying Grove House back, FDC outrageously demanded £250,000 to return our asset, then flogged it off cheap to the Isle of Ely College for £6,000. Despite this obvious scandalous financial inconsistency, at least the building continued to play a diminished role in the community life of Chatteris. Unfortunately it appears that the college had little funds for maintenance, and our building has been neglected and allowed to deteriorate for years.

In 2004 FDC finally realised that centralising services in March had been short sighted and launched its flag ship policy of returning services to the Market Towns. Hundreds of thousands of pounds were poured into the privately owned new ‘one-stop-shop’, while the original (and still the best) potential civic centre stood by.

Although sadly neglected, the building is fortunately protected by ‘listing’. The College has recently decided to follow FDC’s unfortunate 1990’s precedent, and centralise its activities at March. Grove House is now surplus to their requirements, and presumably will be disposed of.

In March 2007, Cllr Christine Colbert put the following motion to Chatteris Town Council: "Following the cessation of the education use of Grove House, Chatteris Town Council calls upon Fenland District Council to secure the return of Grove House from the College of West Anglia at a figure deemed appropriate given the terms of the sale agreement. Chatteris Town Council further calls upon Fenland District Council to return the building to Chatteris for the benefit of the community at nil cost to Chatteris." In one of its most remarkable ever demonstrations of short sightedness, the old Town Council , lead by the then Chairman, voted down the motion.

Instead Chatteris Town Council invited the Principal of the College to Council to discuss the future of Grove House. This invitation was declined. The then council leader (now deputy mayor) appeared on the front page of the Fenland Citizen Chatteris Extra demanding that the building shouldn’t be allowed to become an ‘eye sore’.

How about Town Council actually stopping wingeing and doing something about it themselves ?

Last week the Cambs Times reported the close cooperation between the College and FDC in setting up the new campus west of March. Chatteris needs its 4 newly reelected District Councillors to ensure this cooperation extends to Chatteris, and saving Grove House for the people of Chatteris.

The building belongs to Chatteris, and mustn’t be flogged off just to finance the March development. Chatteris is so short of facilities this key building simply can’t be squandered.

Below is a comments box. During the recent election campaign, many opinions were expressed by residents on the future of Grove House, but not one person seemd to feel it should be flogged off to fund building the March college!
Youth Centre, Civic Centre, Museum ? Please use the comments box to say what you think. Or e-mail me at walter.burnett@googlemail.com I promise to pass your opinions on to the Council.

Walter Burnett is a pen name.