Old River Lane: East Herts Council to pause new arts centre for ‘the foreseeable future’ – but it’s ready to press ahead with shops, offices and homes

Plans for Bishop’s Stortford’s £15.5m new arts centre are set to be paused for “the foreseeable future” by East Herts Council’s Green and Liberal Democrat coalition.

Instead of the investment at Old River Lane (ORL), the authority is considering spending £170,000 on essential maintenance at the United Reformed Church Hall in Water Lane, which is used for the monthly Laughing Bishops Comedy Club and occasional music gigs.

A budget report to be considered at an extraordinary meeting of EHC’s executive on Thursday (December 21) makes it clear the council is still ready to press ahead with plans for shops, offices and new homes on the ORL site in partnership with developer Cityheart.

But instead of the arts centre on the former Charringtons House car park, the new administration is proposing “landscaping works… so that it is an attractive site rather than an undeveloped area blighting the retail and commercial units in the Cityheart scheme.”

The scheme is in limbo after Cityheart pulled two planning applications earlier this year.

The cabinet says reductions in Government grants, inflation and other pressures are set to create a budget shortfall of £1.179m for the 2024-25 financial year from April, followed by a further £3.551m the year after. The council has already saved £5.3m since 2020 and is restricted to a 2.99% rise in council tax for 2024-25 council tax.

The Green Party’s Cllr Carl Brittain, EHC’s executive member for financial sustainability, said: “Like all councils, we are facing tough decisions in the months and years ahead to balance our books.

“Protecting essential services and prioritising our vulnerable residents is our top priority and, in the interests of transparency, we want to ensure that people are aware of the challenges we face in achieving this.”

Other savings under consideration include senior management restructuring and a reduction on overtime payments; renting out part of the council’s Wallfields office in Hertford to a commercial tenant; and selling property with the target of generating £6m to repay loans and reduce interest payments.

Deputy council leader Mione Goldspink and her fellow Bishop’s Stortford Liberal Democrats, Cllrs Miriam Swainston and Sarah Copley, are all members of the Old River Lane Delivery Board. They said: “We are sorry to report that the news is every bit as bad as we had feared.

“There will be nothing approaching the £15m which was originally predicted. This means that there is no possibility of building an arts centre on the ORL site in the foreseeable future.

“We, as district councillors who live in Bishop’s Stortford, are extremely disappointed with this situation, but we do have to accept the hard financial facts. We know that the people of Bishop’s Stortford will share our bitter disappointment.

“Our ambition remains to provide an arts centre as soon as it would be financially viable, and we will report back as soon as we have any new information. In the meantime, we will put all our energies into investigating the possible options for using the limited funds which are available. We fully intend to consult on these options once they become clear.”

Bishop’s Stortford’s Cllr David Jacobs, who leads the council’s Labour group, said: “We recognise that Conservative Government cuts in local authority grants are the main reason for these proposals. Combined with inflation, this has put intolerable pressures on council budgets across the country, leading to a number declaring themselves effectively bankrupt. In prosperous East Herts, the poorest in society will suffer the most if council services are cut.

“There is very limited information available at this stage regarding the council’s plan, making it hard to comment in any detail. However, a budget shortfall of £1.179m next year, followed by a further £3.551m the following year, puts the council’s finances under severe pressure with the inevitable threat of further cuts to come if spending cannot be controlled.

“Rather than making East Herts staff pay for this crisis with cuts to personnel and overtime, the council should be looking to reduce its expenditure on contracts and consultants – £500,000 a year is being spent on project management of the Old River Lane project alone, while nothing has been delivered.

“Referring to the Old River Lane arts centre as being ‘paused’ is utterly disingenuous. The council may as well be honest and admit it is being cancelled.

“What this means for the ORL project overall, including Charringtons House, is unclear. Cityheart is doing nothing but needs to be revising the whole scheme. It is about time the council started to be honest with its residents about the future of this project.

“We welcome the U-turn on the plan to demolish the Water Lane Hall, but the council has missed the opportunity to commit to the long-term future of this historic building and invest properly in the site. This do-minimum approach will do little other than keep the lights on, but we will work with residents to optimise the life of the building.

“The council has also announced plans to sell property to raise £6m. Without knowing what these properties are, it is very difficult to comment further. Any attempt to sell off civic buildings such as community centres will be strongly resisted.

“We call on the council leadership to provide details of their plans as soon as possible and ensure the voices of East Herts residents are listened to before any decisions are made.

“We recognise the difficult position that the council is in and will work constructively with them to deliver the best outcome for our residents. The root cause of these budget woes remains the systematic reduction in funding from central government.”

Colin Woodward, a Bishop’s Stortford resident and former town, district and county councillor, quizzed East Herts Council leader Cllr Ben Crystall about the future of the URC Hall at a meeting last week.

He is part of a consortium of community groups – Community Initiative Bishop’s Stortford, Friends of Water Lane Hall and Bishop’s Stortford Civic Federation – determined to save the hall from demolition as part of Cityheart’s scheme and run it as a community arts space.

He said the maintenance plan was an encouraging sign but not a full answer to the question of why a detailed bid to take over the hall, lodged in March, had not been properly considered.

Bishop’s Stortford BID, which represents town centre traders, said: “While we understand the financial pressure East Herts Council is under currently, the ongoing uncertainty for the Old River Lane site is not good news for the town. A clear plan with a timeframe needs to be put in place so we all know what’s going to happen with that area.”

East Herts Council’s Conservative group was also invited by the Indie to comment.