It’s happened — contracts exchanged!

We are thrilled — over three years of negotiations are now crowned with success. The Westgate Hall’s new life as a cultural community centre for our city is within sight.

Contracts between Canterbury City Council, the Trust and Corinthian Curzon/Curzon Cinemas relating to the Hall have been exchanged: the Agreement for Lease to the Trust and the sublease for Corinthian Curzon. With this, the first and most critical stage in a two-part process has been achieved.

Part Two, signature of the lease to the Westgate Hall in its final form, will take place this summer as soon as Curzon’s planning is formally agreed.

The Trust already has planning permission and is currently considering tenders for the refurbishment works we will be undertaking.

Negotiating the contracts has taken time, however credit goes to everyone involved — the Council, Trust and Corinthian Curzon — for taking care to develop solid agreements. All three groups want the Westgate Hall project to flourish.

From the Trust’s side, as regards our legal representation, Hugo Barton of Gardner Croft deserves our wholehearted thanks. He has guided us with unfailing good humour and generosity of time through what was, on occasions, arduous work. Our thanks to him and his colleagues.

What is particularly exciting about the Westgate Hall adventure is that it confirms what can be achieved when a community recognizes what is important to it, rallies to protect it, and engages in creating solutions. In this case, the Trust, a small band of enthusiasts with a dynamic membership, grew and was supported by Canterbury’s communities in saving the Hall.

There is another dimension to this success: we should all be particularly proud as this is apparently the first successful example of Community Asset Transfer (CAT) in Kent. May our experiences encourage and help other communities. And should there be another example, please let us know so it can give further inspiration.

The Hall is now closed. We are currently working on our timeline. As matters stand, we are aiming for reopening in spring/summer 2014.

When it does, we look forward to it once again being a home for community events of all kinds — dancing, blood transfusion, boot fairs, musical events — and that charities and businesses will enjoy hiring it. It will continue to be used by the Council for vote counting and for civic emergencies. And, of course, there will be the pleasure provided by Curzon Cinemas’ three-screen arthouse cinema.

Thank you all for your unwavering support — we wouldn’t be where we are today without it.

First AGM, Wednesday, 22nd May, Westgate Hall, 7.30

Tomorrow evening is a big moment — our first AGM.

Everyone in the community is welcome, members and non members alike. We will be giving you a full report on the legal negotiations with Curzon Cinemas and Canterbury City Council, Trust finances, outlining Trust priorities for the coming period and asking for feedback. We would like as many voices as possible to help shape what the Hall and the Trust will have to offer. Voting, however, will only be open to Trust members.

Also, in accordance with the Trust’s Articles of Association, the board will be resigning and standing for re-election. We will take this opportunity to talk about board responsibilities.

Most importantly, we invite all of you to consider sharing your expertise and taking this opportunity to become Trust members!

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Wine, Fairs and Legals

Many thanks to you all who got in touch with us regarding out last post about why the Hall is still open and why the legal negotiations with Curzon Cinemas and Canterbury City Council have taken time. It was very encouraging to be reminded of the support this project has in the community!

We did receive the documents as expected, and inevitably given the inticacies, there were a handful of minor comments that needed attending to. It appears the final clean copies are on the point of being circulated. So, with any luck, this will be it!

In the meantime, we have held two very successful events at the Hall. Clive Barlow, Wine Master at the Goods Shed, once again shared his humour and skill at our Wine Challenge at the Hall last Saturday night when leading us through the intricacies of appreciating and identifying three white wines and three reds. It was a huge amount of fun with the 30 of us who took part split into five teams determined to prove how subtle our palates had become thanks to Clive’s enlightening explanations. Patrick Williams of Patrick’s Kitchen at the Goods Shed provided delicious lentils, red peppers and poached salmon to comfort us.

Both Clive and Patrick have supported the Trust in its efforts to save the Hall from the start and have sponsored several challenges. Huge thanks to them! And huge thanks to you all who joined us and made the evening such a success.

Then this Sunday we had the last of our Indoor Boot Fairs before closing the Hall. These have proved a great meeting place for the community over the winter, an opportunity to enjoy coffee and tea with neighbours and friends as much as rummaging through the tables of goods. Thanks to everyone who has supported us with this, our volunteers, and particularly Chris Cayley who has masterminded the fairs.

Finally, the Trust’s Annual General Meeting is taking place at 7.30 pm on Wednesday, 22nd May, at the Westgate Hall. This meeting is only open to Trust members.

Most importantly, we are all very much looking forward to opening champagne!

We’ll let you know immediately the moment has come!

So, why haven’t we signed? Why is the Hall still open?

How come the Westgate Hall is still open? How come we haven’t signed yet? Is the project even still up and running? Basically, what’s going on?

Well, we owe you long long time faithful supporters insight.

So far, we have used a light touch in informing about how lease negotiations have been moving along because anything else would have been inappropriate. Waiting as we are for the seven legal documents to be circulated to the three parties for signature, we now feel able to shed more light on matters.

We hope this will clear away ideas that appear to have drifted through the ether that negotiations between us, Curzon Cinemas and Canterbury City Council broke down, have broken down. Never.

The Westgate Hall Project is absolutely unrepentantly, undeniably, happening.

That the lease negotiations have taken much longer than any of us expected, yes. To be precise, this saga has been relentless since July 2011 when the Council Executive voted to grant the Trust a 99-year lease for the Westgate Hall.

A couple of pictures spring to mind. The Westgate Hall Project has been organic. All of us involved — the Westgate Community Trust, Curzon Cinemas, Canterbury City Council — have been in new territory, building, if you’ll forgive the pun, in a brave new world. Back to plants for a second: they take time to grow and nurture, and we’d all like this one to be an oak.

The cast of characters, setting and plot:

Three characters, three sectors — The Westgate Community Trust (voluntary/nonprofit, unpaid); Canterbury City Council (public); Curzon Cinemas (private).
Three legal teams in three locations: Canterbury (Trust); Birmingham (Council); London (Curzon Cinemas).
Transferring a public asset to a company limited by guarantee with charitable status, with a private company as tenant.
Seven (7) documents, cumulatively several hundred pages.
Two Easters, two Christmases, one summer. Yes, we all took breaks, and tried to look after our families, work, balance our lives, including finding time to eat and sleep, and so, yes, communications inevitably slowed down.
Big Society, Localism, Community Right to Bid and more, floating in the atmosphere.

Imagine us all dancing a waltz in a climate of recession, changes in government and legislation. In fact, the one-two-three tempo has defined how matters have evolved — between the characters, the characters with their legal teams, the legal teams with each other. Every now and again, someone has stepped on someone’s dress or toes — the squeal may have been heard as a ‘breakdown’ rather than interpreted as a ‘misstep’, or a ‘realignment’, or a ‘rethink’, but that’s part of what dance lessons are about. Yes, we’ve all been feeling our way forward, constantly needing to adapt to changes in the world here and beyond Canterbury.

Now to some vital information:

The Hall is still open because of the tireless efforts of everyone who has organized, supported, and taken part in Trust fund raising events, and thanks to the sterling work of the Community Development team at the Council. Our joint efforts have allowed us to make the Hall viable while we wait to sign. Once the documents are signed, the Hall will remain open for another two months. This is why the date keeps shifting. Lucky us that we can keep making use of this amazing space. Great collaboration.
The Council has granted Planning Permission for our application. We are thrilled. Only one representation, from the Canterbury Conservation Advisory Committee, was received and that was supportive. And in the interests of full disclosure, here’s the link:

http://www2.canterbury.gov.uk/planning/acolnetcgi.cgi?ACTION=UNWRAP&RIPNAME=Root.PgeResultDetail&TheSystemkey=87759

We have put our refurbishment project out to tender.
Curzon’s funds allow us to make the Hall weathertight. However, we would like to achieve more. We are currently costing those items we would love the Hall to have, but which funds don’t currently cover e.g. big windows, doors etc. It’s a big building. We are developing a fund raising plan to this end and we’d love the community, individuals and businesses alike, to buy into this aspect of the refurbishment.
We are developing a new website with Alex Ridings of Think which will be launched within the next weeks. This blog is our interim solution for spreading the word, as well as our Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. Please check in with them.
We have two events coming up: our Wine Challenge on 20th April, and Indoor Boot Fair, on 28th April. We’d love to see you.

As you can see, the Westgate Hall Project is on the point of exploding into a new chapter.

We are very much looking forward to having you with us as we all develop the Hall into a centre for our city.

Linda Hunter-Johnson, 22nd February 1958 – 19th March 2013

Linda Hunter-Johnson was a sunny, interested, energetic, outgoing person whose warm support of the Trust and the Westgate Hall project will be missed.

She believed in community and was always willing and interested to help. She was a true doer and includer. We have fond memories of volunteering together with Linda, her husband, Chris, and son, Ivan, back in July 2011 when we introduced Curzon Cinemas and the plans for the Hall to Canterbury. And her cheerful, good humoured support continued, most recently last summer, with her enthusiastic gardening as we began reviving the green space around the Westgate Hall with our community pop up garden.

Linda’s spirit was beautifully captured at her funeral, last Thursday, when we began by singing Morning Has Broken and concluded with the Four Tops, I’ll Be There. They said it all.

We are so sorry that Chris, Ivan and Rowena should find themselves losing such a wonderful wife and mother so unexpectedly and so soon. We very much hope to see them, enjoying the Hall, and we look forward to spending time with them.

The Westgate Hall Wine Challenge is back!

The lawyers are finalising the legal documents — we will be signing as soon as they are circulated. In the meantime, we are delighted to ask you to join us at the Westgate Hall on the the 20th of April, at 7pm, for a Wine Challenge, led by Clive Barlow, Master of Wine.

He has already held a couple of wine challenges for us in the past, which everyone enjoyed immensely and we are very grateful that he is helping us once more.

The evening will involve tasting 6 wines and answering some tasting questions, and a light supper provided by Patrick Williams (of Patrick’s Kitchen, from the Goods Shed).

Tickets are £25 and will help us raise much needed funds for the refurbishment of the Hall. You can book as teams of 6 or individually (we can help make up tables). To book please email us at westgatecommunitytrust@gmail.com. Please let all your wine and food-loving friends know!

Matching music, beer and food: 3rd of February feast at the Westgate Hall

It’s wonderful when good things come together.

First, Tim Edey and Brendan Power offer to return to the Westgate Hall for another fundraising concert on the 3rd of February. They are aware of how crucial it is that we raise as much funds as possible ahead of the refurbishment, and they had a wonderful time last time they played for us in May (have a look here if you missed it!).

Second, Luke Jackson, a young Folk/Roots singer songwriter from Canterbury, who is a double nominee for the 2013 BBC Radio 2 Awards agrees to open the concert, which seems very fitting, as Tim and Brendan were the winners of the Best Duo Award in 2012.

And it keeps getting better!

Third, there is a great overlap between people who like Folk/roots music and people who appreciated good beer. So it seems a great match that Canterbury Brewers, who run a microbrewery at the Foundry (only a few yards from the Westgate Hall), will be running the bar, offering their own local beers as well as ciders and other drinks.

And fourth: the food! Flavours of Spain, a very small Kent-based company importing and producing fantastic Spanish food (with a strong Galician influence), will be offering artisan Spanish charcuterie and cheese boards so that nobody goes hungry:

1 – Charcuterie board which will include a selection of our cured meats with a dish of olives, picos (breadsticks made with extra virgin olive oil) and a dish of almonds that have been roasted with oak and olive wood. £10

1a – Artisan bread and extra virgin olive oil at £2.50.

2 – Cheese board which will include a selection of our artisan produced cheeses, varying in texture and strength, including a super gold winner at the World Cheese Awards. The board will also include three dishes of picos, almonds and olives, plus a fig and almond slice which goes well with our cheese selection. £10

2a – Artisan bread and extra virgin olive oil at £2.50.

Please note that food orders will need to be paid in cash.

This is shaping up to be an evening to remember! Advance tickets are available at £10.15 via this link, and there will be tickets available at the door too at £12.

Doors will open at 7pm. The venue is the Westgate Hall, Westgate Hall road, Canterbury CT1 2BT.

And, to help raise more funds towards the refurbishment, we are delighted that, as well as signed CDs and DVDs by Tim and Brendan, we are receiving wonderful raffle prizes from local businesses. So far: a big box of Veg from the Goods Shed, a silver pendant from 925 (57 Palace street), a couple of bottles of wine donated by the Dolphin pub, a keg of beer donated by Murrays store at the Goods Shed, lunch for two at Cafe Mauresque, lunch for two and a bottle of wine at the Unicorn, a Vacuum Coffee experience at Willows Coffee House for 4 people, a drum and picture frame from Siesta… and more coming soon, no doubt. In fact, some of the prizes will be reserved for the Tombola we will be holding at the Boot Fair on the 10th of February. Watch this space!

Westgate Hall, Canterbury