ST HELEN'S HOUSE

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The St Helen's House Trust, a charitable organisation made up of concerned residents, who have fought to save the building, submitted a feasibility study to the council outlining the restoration plans. It revealed that the trust was prepared to spend £4.7m on structural repairs and £1.3m on conversions. As well as returning adult education to the building, the trust hoped to make it a venue for events such as concerts, plays and conferences. Peter Steer, of the trust, said that unless a very willing benefactor could be found it was unlikely the trust would be able to afford to buy the building. The trust had hoped to acquire funding from English Heritage or the Heritage Lottery Fund to pay for the work on the 18th-century building, designed by Joseph Pickford. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

A repair bill of an estimated £1.9m has forced Derby City Council to close St. Helen's House adult learning centre. But, a London firm of architects has offered to help campaigners who want to keep it open. Chris Edwards, the assistant director of property services at the city council said, "The council has a large number of buildings and has a huge eminence backlog in those buildings. We have to spend the money best we can where it is most needed. This now needs major investment, St Helen's house itself it is estimated around £1.9m of repairs."

All adult learning classes currently based there will move and studies are being relocated because of the serious maintenance problems. Peter Steer from the trust set up to try and save the house said, "We can obtain grants that the council couldn't. We can get fairly quickly an emergency grant to make essential repairs to the house so that it will not deteriorate over the next three or four years while the matter is settled."

St Helen's House is set to be sold by the city council because it cannot afford the £5m refurbishment costs, but whoever buys it will face strict council guidelines dictating what the Georgian building can be used for and what alterations can be made to it. Under the sell-off plan, adult education classes which are held in the crumbling grade-I listed building will be held at other centres across the city from September 2004. The authority has now said it has no "sustainable use" for the building as it cannot afford to repair it for continued use as an education centre for its 1,500 students.

Director of corporate services Michael Foote said the sale will be subject to a development and conservation brief which will lay down guidelines for the house's future and added, "This will indicate to any prospective purchaser what they can do with the building. It will set out a framework of what future uses would be acceptable. If we didn't do this, people would be free to come in with any off-the-wall idea." The cost of drawing up the development and conservation brief is expected to be about £10,000, while the value of St Helen's House will not be calculated until the brief has outlined possible uses for the building.

The report to the cabinet, which was jointly written by Mr Foote and director of education Andrew Flack, states that evening classes from St Helen's House could move to St Benedict Catholic School, in Duffield Road, and other schools which already provide adult learning. It also says that daytime classes could be held at the Rycote Centre, in Parker Street, off Kedleston Road, while classes for people with learning difficulties will move to a new learning centre in the former Allen Park School, in Allen Street, Allenton. The 18th-century building has already been deemed unsuitable for the new home of Derby Register Office, which is being forced to relocate to make way for Westfield's planned Eagle Centre extension. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

Does the fact that the city council's leadership did not know about the proposed sale of antiques until it was too late to stop it without penalties identify shortcomings in its competency? As a council tax payer, I would have expected the Liberal Democrats on taking power to have found out what the last administration had instructed the officers to do and stop things that they disagreed with. Maurice Burgess, the Liberal Democrat leader, has admitted that they had not found out what the officers had been instructed to do. If they had, they would have known about the sale. Is he, in fact, not saying the Liberal Democrats do not know what their officers are doing?

I find it entirely surprising that the Liberal Democrat leadeship was oblivious to the sale, since the sale of these antiques had been agreed sometime last year. Surely, the council's income for this year would have included the contribution from the proposed sale of the St Helen's antique furniture? Didn't the Liberal Democrats think to find out what this income was and where it came from? As leaders of the council, they should know what the council income is and where it is coming from? This raises the question as to whether the Liberal Democrats are competent to lead the council. What else are they are unaware of? Are there other things that will happen or that have happened, which could have been stopped or changed if they had been aware of it? Keith Webley

The proposal of the charitable organisation The St Helen's House Trust, was that this building should again be used for adult learning, along with becoming a venue for concerts, plays and conferences without it costing the council tax payers one penny. Unfortunately, it was the Liberal party that seemed sympathetic to this idea, so probably they would have taken the credit for it! The mayor also ran a concert for the trust too, at The Assembly Rooms. Let us all remember this when we next come to vote, because this is the only way we can repay the Labour Party's infidelity to the people of this city. Are you all going to sit back and let them get away with doing this? Dennis Sleigh-Farnway

In principle I am in favour of increased council taxes to pay for the preservation of our local buildings and environment. It is arguable however that this would not have proven necessary had successive Derby councils not let St Helen's House fall into the condition it is in today. As an alternative Councillor Roberts could support cutting back spending on other projects that do not currently receive widespread public support such as the Quad (in it's present guise) or the Five Lamps road scheme where tens of thousand of pounds of tax payers money has already been wasted. My belief though is that regardless of how many sacks of mail Councillor Roberts would receive Derby City Council will continue to spend the council tax payers money how it wants regardless of what the taxpayer's opinions are. Peter Farrington

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