Posted by Tom Turpin ‘I’ve got ‘em on my list - The news that Bassetlaw District Council had proposed to English Heritage - who decide these matters - that Misterton Village Hall be placed on the list of buildings of historical or architectural importance, thereby becoming a ‘Listed Building’, caught everybody in Misterton on the hop. It was unexpected, unwelcome, and to some of us unbelievable.
on 2/11/2006, 5:48 pm
195.93.21.6
Unless I am beaten at the post, this will be the first posting on the new Message Board, set up by Misterton Parish Council on their community website. So let me begin by thanking the Parish Council for providing this opportunity for debating and discussing matters of interest for anyone with access to the Internet. It’s a new avenue of communication which I hope will be well used; we can make our suggestions and comments and criticisms - we can even launch attacks on the Parish Council, which seems a bit unfair - but that’s democracy for you.
It shouldn’t be necessary to say that the facts in what follows are true to the best of my knowledge - and necessary corrections are welcome - but that the opinions are my own and represent no official body or line - but I’ll say it anyway. So here goes:
They’ll none of them be missed’
The Mikado.
Now I am no enemy to the principle and practice of listing buildings, easily shown because we own and live in one, and our previous home was also listed. We see it as a privilege - at times an expensive one - to be living occupants of a piece of our heritage; but listing a building is a serious matter and it has to be the right sort of building - and frankly, gentlefolk, the Village Hall doesn’t cut the mustard.
The effect of listing a building is to preserve it in its state at the time of listing - and the onus of doing that and maintaining it is put on the owner - which can be very onerous indeed. Contrary to some beliefs, it is not impossible to make changes, but it is made difficult because you have to obtain ‘Listed Building Consent’, which is like Planning Permission but much more stringent and takes a lot longer. Basically, you are not allowed to do anything which changes the character of the building - particularly on the outside, because it is part of the scenery. This makes it difficult to find a new role for a building which has lost its original uses. Theoretically, you can find yourself in jail for failing to look after the building - I don’t know that anyone has ever actually been imprisoned, but the threat is there. Some owners neglect their buildings with a view to demolition when they become dangerous, but that is an option not open to the Parish Council who are now the Trustees of the Village Hall and responsible for its upkeep.
I don’t want to go into the history of the hall - there’s no point in dipping buckets into muddy waters that have long passed under the bridge. Suffice it to say that it’s a sorry story - it was only kept open for years by a Parish Council subsidy, was used less and less until finally the Parish Council was the only hirer, and they moved to the Church Room when they came one evening to a meeting to find the place had added lack of heating to its usual unwelcome.
I suppose that with hindsight you might think that the Parish Council was unwise to seek control of the Hall; but the Council does have responsibility for looking after the village, and that includes its neglected public buildings, and it seemed the best solution at the time to sell the hall and devote the proceeds to public works, and to do that the Council had to persuade the Charity Commissioners to vest control of it in the Parish Council. This was done with some difficulty - the Charity Commission moves with the speed of a retarded glacier - but it was done at last, and the way was clear to sell the hall - with Planning Permission to demolish it and build houses there, which should maximise the selling price. Sighs of relief all round. The possibility of demolition being ruled out by listing never occurred to anyone in Misterton. Then Bassetlaw stirred.
One mystery is why Bassetlaw DC have suddenly decided that this building merits listed status. I don’t know how many Misterton buildings are listed, but it’s a fair number. A few years ago a group of us asked Bassetlaw to list an old cottage in danger of demolition. They wouldn’t even look at it. The rather sniffy answer we got was that Misterton had been thoroughly surveyed and everything deserving of listing had been duly included. So the Village Hall must have been considered - it’s not on an unvisited side-road. Buildings nearby are listed - the Methodist Church, the Old School complex, the facade of the Old Co-op (soon to become the Misterton Centre), but quite rightly, the Village Hall was passed over. Why the change of heart? Bassetlaw officials now say it’s an important part of the street scene. There’s bitter irony there. About 30 yards from it there’s the Old Bank, a derelict abandoned building which our Parish Council have been begging Bassetlaw for over four years to get rid of; now they are concerned about our street scene!
Soon you’ll be invited to sign a petition asking that the Village Hall be not listed. I hope you’ll sign. If English Heritage decide to list it, we shall be lumbered (literally) with an unlovely building, and our Council Tax money will have to be used to maintain and insure it (The insurance bill is over £1500 per annum). Meantime, if the worst comes to the worst, exercise your brain to find a viable use for a building with no parking facilities, where you can’t legally park outside to load or unload, which will cost maybe more than £100K to put into good order, and which nobody wants to keep. If you think of one, tell the Parish Council. Otherwise, keep your fingers crossed and pray that English Heritage have more sense than BDC - that shouldn’t be hard for them. And sign the petition.
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