Serving Little Aston, Shenstone, Stonnall, Shenstone Wood End, Lynn, Parish Council Office 25C Main Street Shenstone WS14 OLZ
Tel: 01543 481 947
e-mail: <admin@shenstonepc.pcwpreview.co.uk >
web: www.shenstone-staffs.gov.uk
5th March 2021
Dear Mr Morrison
This letter responds on behalf of the Shenstone Parish Council SYCC Working Group to the issues you identified in writing and which Cllr David Smith spoke of as SYCC Management Committee representative at the 24th February 2021 meeting. I want to begin by thanking you, Cllr David Smith and Mr Peter Hales for taking the time to raise the issues set out in both the agenda you provided and the accompanying report. I address each issue after discussion with and on behalf of the Working Group.
1. Works required to the SYCC building in the next five years.
A Building Appraisal commissioned by the Parish Council and carried out by a RICS chartered building surveyor company (recommended to us by you) as part of the Parish Councils consideration of the SCC offer of ownership has identified that 75k of repair work (including fees and prelims and VAT) is required to remedy the schedule of defects identified. The survey and schedule excluded work that cannot be observed. The surveyor has specified that all the repair works need to be completed within five years.
In your written note & in David Smith’s address, it was stated that “most of the points raised have either been completed or are budgeted for completion”. We would be grateful for a schedule of the Building Appraisal repair works completed by the Management Committee and a schedule of the Building Appraisal repair works budgeted for and the relevant repair specification which matches the recommendations of the chartered building surveyor report.
As the building lease has only ten years to run and requires considerable expenditure to remedy the defects identified and following your representations, the Parish Council Working Group has decided to commission a full RICS building survey to provide a detailed condition assessment which will include the unseen and excluded areas omitted from the appraisal. The Working Group needs to ensure that the building is safe and fit for purpose through the ten years remaining and needs reasonable assurance of the costs to secure that outcome.
2. Use of the SYCC building.
While the Parish Council notes your statement that “the building is currently used regularly by over 200 residents of Stonnall” we cannot see any evidence of that from any detailed booking information that we have requested, and you have provided. From the information that we have been given the Working Group is clear that both the SYCC and Village Hall have well under 50% daytime and evening utilization. We understand you have a SYCC intention to fill “vacant slots” but you have given us no evidence of the needs or demand for these vacant slots. The Working Group intention to continue with consultation will be covered later in the response however the Working Group have not as yet seen any convincing evidence of why a more efficiently used Village Hall cannot absorb current and future needs.
3. Finance.
Your third substantive item in your submission to the Working Group covers the successful running of the SYCC by the Management Committee. While this is an important point your submission does recognise the management context is “under normal circumstances”. The financial investment required to make the SYCC free of defects in the next five years or to replace the SYCC are not normal financial circumstances. That is why following an offer of ownership by the County Council the Parish Council must assess and consult upon the significant financial implications of the options going forward so that we are fully transparent about the value for money of any investment in the SYCC.
4. Consultation.
The Parish Council carried out a first consultation open to all Stonnall residents and organisations during the summer of 2020. This was an open request for views on the future of the SYCC; the invitation to make comments did not identify a future option and was an open invitation to provide views. The consultation invitation was comprehensively delivered to the Stonnall community and used several communication routes to attempt to extract a meaningful response. The result was disappointing with only 14 responses received from individuals and organisations.
5. Covid 19
Your presentation asks that the Parish Council, “defer any further discussion until we can assess where we are when things return to normal”. The Working Group have considered this carefully and have concluded the following: (a) we have a schedule of SYCC building defects that as leaseholders we need to ensure will be fully remedied within the timescales specified (b) we have a County Council request to respond to an ownership offer which is now over a year old (c) the Working Group has recommendations for further consultation which the Parish Council has approved and which we wish to share with residents and user groups. Consequently while we agree that no final decisions can yet be made further resident and organisation consultation needs to happen.
6. Existing Usage
Your informal discussions with members of the Village Hall have confirmed they could not accommodate the number of present SYCC users. We cannot comment on your informal discussions other than to say the Working Group has two of the five Village Hall Trustees on it.
7. The Site
Your submission identifies a specific SYCC new build replacement requirement. We will now use your dimensions and external space assumptions to request a formal local planning authority pre application determination. This description and the additional information that you have provided since our meeting will be used to extract the formal LDC pre application view. We are clear from discussions with the County Council that the day time provision to allow the school 9 parking places must remain. Any future planning application must honour this arrangement.
8. New Building
Your submission challenges the costs of rebuilding that the Working group have used stating they, “do not represent the likely costs of rebuilding”. Our cost estimates have come from a chartered building surveyor who has specified the building requirements and has engaged a building contractor that has completed similar structures to provide an estimate. Our estimates of the onsite costs of replacement of the existing building start at 338k. You describe your new build costs as an “initial opinion” totalling £100/160k so the Working Group would be very interested in any evidence to prove they have greater validity.
9. Where to Next
The Working Group has concluded that from the information it has gathered to date on defects, users and costs and from the initial consultation response a repaired or rebuilt SYCC does not represent value for money.
The Working Group want to assure the Management Committee that we wish to continue with consultation on the future options for the SYCC and we agree that because of Covid 19 and the need to clarify several areas of detail and this may take some considerable time. At the meeting you will recall I identified that the February Parish Council meeting had approved further consultation on two primary options. Firstly, an offer to Stonnall residents, community groups, school and medical practice to submit a committed and viable expression of interest to redevelop the land and building for the benefit of the Stonnall community. Secondly, two alternative approaches to transferring existing SYCC users to the Village Hall and handing the land back to the County Council. A consultation update explaining this will be contained in the next Parish Council Newsletter, it will also contain an invitation to two Stonnall residents to join the Working Group.
In the meantime and to support further consultation we will also strengthen knowledge of the condition of the current building along with remedies and timing of the remedies as explained in response 1. above. We will further take the dimensions and assumptions you have identified and secure a planning pre application as identified in response 7. above.
Yours sincerely,
Cllr David Thompson.
Chair of the SYCC Working Group.
