I WRITE about the article (LET, April 2) concerning Tockholes Village Hall which seems to suggest that the expected failure of the application for a grant to renovate the kitchen at the hall is the fault of the United Reformed Church ('The Chapel').
This account of our dealings with Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council will give a fuller picture.
We wrote to the council via Capita on March 18, 2003 requesting that a new lease be negotiated. We received a formal acknowledgement stating that 'I am currently liaising with the Community and Development Department at the Council and hope to be able to revert to you shortly.'
Various telephone contacts with the Council Department followed through the summer and autumn until we were finally told at a meeting in early November that the council was ready to begin negotiations on a new lease. We then informed our Trust Body, who must make any legal arrangements on behalf of the church, about this and they wrote to the council on November 24 asking for the council's position on the matter.
No response has yet been received to that request in spite of two follow-up letters in January and March of this year.
Incidentally, had the lease been renewed in 1999 it would have been for a further five years (to 2004) and the problems might still have arisen at this time, so the fact that the lease had expired gave an opportunity for the matter to be resolved before any applications for grants were made.
The delay is as frustrating to the church as it is to the Village Hall Committee, as we wish the Hall to be fully available to the village as a place in which the residents can gather. The question we would like answering is: 'do Blackburn with Darwen Council wish to lease the Hall?'
Rev L ERIC KIRKMAN, Minister, Tockholes United Reformed Church.
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