Old River Lane: East Herts Council to sell Bishop’s Stortford site for £2.77m and spend extra £6m to complete £30.2m Hertford Theatre transformation

East Herts Council is poised to sell 80% of the Old River Lane (ORL) site in Bishop’s Stortford for £2.77m while spending an extra £6m to ensure completion of the £30.2m Hertford Theatre project.

Amid fears of a fire sale, councillors of all parties agreed that finishing the transformation, where construction costs have spiralled over budget by 30%, was vital.

Previously, the theatre ran at a £100,000 deficit, but the council is pinning its hopes on the new facilities making a profit within two years to help stave off bankruptcy.

The upgrade – which was originally budgeted to cost £24m: £18.8m in construction costs and £5.2m in other costs – will include three cinema screens for new releases, a main auditorium with seating for 550, a 150-seat studio theatre, a new dance studio, riverside café, bar and community room.

EHC’s Green Party and Liberal Democrat administration said the final tranche of funding for Hertford’s stage and screen complex would be paid for through the sale of assets worth £6m.

They ruled out scaling back the project and said scrapping or delaying construction could have left the authority open to costly legal challenges by contractors, risking an unbalanced budget.

At an extraordinary meeting of the authority last Thursday, Cllr John Wyllie (Con, Stortford Thorley Manor) asked the executive member for financial sustainability, Cllr Carl Brittain (Green Party, Hertford Kingsmead), for an assurance that cash from the sale of Bishop’s Stortford’s Causeway land would not be used to finish Hertford’s theatre.

Cllr Brittain told him: “That’s not the way it works.” But the administration has not yet told councillors which assets are on its list for disposal to cover the £6m theatre shortfall.

The Indie understands that the £2.77m Old River Lane receipt has already been included in the budget proposals.

Cllr Wyllie’s concerns about exactly where the money will come from were shared by Cllr Diane Hollebon (Con, Stortford South), who said it was wrong to agree to spend £6m without listing the assets involved, and other members also wanted more details.

The council’s leader, Cllr Ben Crystall (Green, Hertford Bengeo), said property worth £10m in all had been identified and the parties would be allowed to discuss what should be sold.

When he was warned it was a buyers’ market, Cllr Brittain agreed: “We will have to be careful that we do not sell stuff at a ridiculously low price.”

Cllr Simon Marlow (Lib Dem, Stortford South) wanted confirmation there would be no further demand for funding to finish Hertford Theatre and was concerned that new arts facilities planned in Harlow would affect profit projections. The figures were also questioned by Cllr Yvonne Estop (Lab, Stortford Central).

Cllr Sarah Copley (Lib Dem, Stortford North) warned that public transport to Hertford was too difficult and Stortford and Sawbridgeworth residents would be drawn to Harlow without an upgrade.

The executive member for resident engagement, Cllr Chris Wilson (Lib Dem, Stortford All Saints), said it “stings” that Hertford was getting an arts centre while Bishop’s Stortford was missing out, but he said the council had run out of money and it was “incumbent on us” to make Hertford’s theatre a success.

Other members were upbeat about the project’s potential. Cllr Brittain said a sense of perspective was important and complaining seemed petty compared to problems in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine.

The council has confirmed that once planning permission was granted to build on The Causeway, it would effectively sell 80% of the 5.2-acre Old River Lane site to developer Cityheart on a 200-year lease for £2.77m.

An outline planning application for a new public square, pedestrian-friendly streets, 150 homes, 75 “extra care” dwellings, 1,000 sq m retail space, 3,500 sq m office building and a landmark £15.5m arts centre was withdrawn in September along with plans to demolish Water Lane United Reformed Church Hall and the Charringtons House office building.

The council will retain ownership of the redundant Charringtons House car park, but plans to build the £15.5m cinema-led arts centre there have been shelved.

EHC has already spent £4m progressing Old River Lane and has said cancelling the whole scheme would push the authority into bankruptcy.

It expected Cityheart to submit a new planning application for the site, which has been mired in controversy since Conservatives at EHC sold it to Henderson Global Investors in 2009 for £2.35m.

Plans for a £105m redevelopment – including a department store, 35 shops, cinema, underground car park, 100 flats and hotel – failed to materialise in the face of fierce opposition from Bishop’s Stortford Civic Federation and others.

In 2015, EHC Tories spent £15.5m buying back Charringtons House land and building, the Causeway and Waitrose car parks, houses at 1 to 3 River Lane and No 1 The Causeway, which has since been demolished.

If Cityheart makes more than 10% profit on its development, an agreement will stipulate it splits the bonus with the council.

Before the £2.77m land sale is finalised, a Section 123 report will validate its market value.