Background 

Parklands Community Centre is located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire – right next to Cheltenham Town Football Club. Our future is now at risk.

The Centre has been run for charitable purposes since its inception in 1945. It is a much-needed, and thriving, social hub. In April 2021, it was registered as an Asset of Community Value.

We provide the local community with varied and inclusive activities to support a range of educational, training, recreational and well-being needs. This includes NHS clinics, baby sensory groups, dog training sessions, dance classes, a motorcycle training school, family fun days, private functions and much more! 

The Centre also provides spectator parking for up to 150 vehicles for Cheltenham Town FC home matches.

We managed to survive COVID-19, despite the odds, when many other community centres had to close down. Unfortunately, we believe that Parklands is now on borrowed time.

What's the issue?

Cheltenham Borough Council owns the Centre, and first entered into a lease with the charity more than 50 years ago. 

From July 2021, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation has been the sole trustee of the charity. In September 2021, council officers invited the CIO trustees to discuss a lease renewal. Heads of terms were discussed at a meeting in August 2022, following which we formally requested a renewal of the tenancy. This was necessary because, without a new lease, we cannot secure any meaningful grant funding or enter into long-term hire arrangements with users of the Centre.

We heard nothing further until several months later when, out of the blue, we received correspondence from a specialist firm of solicitors, appointed by the Council, advising us that we were not in fact entitled to renew the lease. There had been a complete 360, with the Council saying that the CIO is only a management trustee and not entitled to a lease renewal. It felt to us that the Council was relying on a technicality without fully weighing up the consequences. 

There was a strict deadline by which we had to apply to the county court for a new tenancy, or we would lose the right to renew the lease. There was an option to agree an extension, to enable us to negotiate without the need for legal action, but the Council considered that the issues were best determined by the court. We therefore had no option but to apply to the court in March 2023 for the lease renewal.

We were surprised by the Council's position for several reasons:

- The CIO is a charity (with no money or assets) that runs a community centre which has been in existence for over 50 years – why is the Council taking such an unnecessarily aggressive approach, rather than just talking to us?

- We had already had discussions with the Council (which they instigated) on the lease renewal and they were fully aware that the charity is run by the CIO; in fact, it was the CIO that they invited to the meeting!

- Furthermore, and this should concern all Cheltenham residents, the Council has opted not to use its own in-house legal service. It has instead expended huge sums of money (in excess of £65,000 so far) in appointing a specialist firm of solicitors and London barristers to oppose the renewal (which it proposed!). At a time when council budgets are so tight, it makes no sense to adopt this approach and not just talk to us. The Council is fully aware that the CIO has no money and therefore it will be very difficult to recoup its legal costs.

What is the Council doing?

We have been provided with a list of various uses for the Centre that council officers consider might be more beneficial to the Council (e.g. a commercial use) that we believe disregards the importance of its Asset of Community Value status.

In 2019, the Council and Cheltenham Borough Homes worked up a social housing scheme for the Parklands site. We are not opposed to the idea of development in principle, but our primary concern is that the scheme is unlikely to include a new community centre – and the crucial benefits it provides to the local community will disappear.

The legal hurdles we face are outlined below.

Our legal battle - we urgently need to raise £3,500

We made an application to strike out the Council's case based on alleged procedural errors and because we believed that the Council had not applied the appropriate statutory tests before deciding to challenge the renewal. 

In our view, the Council failed to consider the extensive community benefits which favoured a renewal of the lease and/or the likely impacts on people (particularly those with protected characteristics) that might result from its opposition to our renewal request.

Unfortunately, the court dismissed the strike-out application and determined that it is more appropriate to raise these matters at the future trial. The CIO has also been ordered to pay substantial costs for the strike-out application, which it cannot do because (as the Council has known for years) it has no money. 

Help

We need to raise £3,500 to cover the costs (court and barrister fees) of an application to the High Court for permission to appeal the county court decision. Any additional funding will be spent on the appeal itself, if we get to that stage.

We really need your support. We are grateful for whatever amount you’re able to donate, big or small. Please also share this page with others so that we can reach the target and ensure that the Centre is safe for many more years to come.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!