Pip’s Patch

An ARC News Service Report:

There was clapping and cheering at the meeting on Tuesday, December 13 when members  of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority ( YDNPA ) approved the sale of 72a Main Street and adjoining open space at Sedbergh to the White Knights Consortium. This should ensure the future of Sedbergh Community Office and Sedbergh History Society.

The White Knights is a local  consortium which had bid £80,000 on a “not for profit” basis. It will hold the property and open space in trust for the town for up to four years so that the Sedbergh and District Community Development Heritage Trust has more time to raise the money.  If the community cannot not raise £80,000 the ownership would then be transferred to Sedbergh Parish Councill to be sold on the own market so that the White Knights can be repaid.

One of the conditions agreed by the Authority was that if there was any profit from selling on the open market 50 per cent would be given to the YDNPA. The rest would be donated to the community of Sedbergh. Some Authority members asked how the YDNPA could sell for £30,000 to £50,000 less than it might have got on the open market.

The YDNPA had budgeted for £130,000 at a time when it  needed the money to cover staff salaries and other costs.  “I don’t know where that money can be found – it is looking rather bleak,” said Authority member Ann  Brooks. She added: “I urge the people of Sedbergh to repay (the White Knights) as quickly as possible.”

Richmondshire Dt Coun Stuart Parsons, who proposed the acceptance of the White Knights offer, pointed out that the expected open market price of the building had dropped in the last few years  from £192,500 to £110,000 by October. “There is no guarantee we would get £110,000 now,” he said. He added that the relationship between the Authority and the community of Sedbergh could be further damaged if the sale didn’t go ahead and that could take years to repair. “That is too high a price to pay,” he commented.

David Butterworth, the chief executive, recommended that the Authority should accept the White Knights offer.  In his report he noted that the Authority had no further use for the building and had decided to sell it. But even when the price was reduced there were no offers for it except that from the White Knights for £60,000 which had been subsequently increased to £80,000.

He told members: “I have been hugely impressed and somewhat humbled by the responses I have received not just from Sedbergh but from other parts of Britain and the world. The majority have been thoughtful and considerate.” He described Mark Westwood of the White Knights Consortium as a man of honour and integrity who had worked well with Richard Burnett of the YDNPA. And he hoped that the sale of the building to the White Knights would lead to a positive relationship between the YDNPA and the community of Sedbergh.

As the Authority had been assured that the building and open space would continue to contribute towards the promotion and improvement of the economic, social and environmental being of  part of the National Park it could, under a general consent from the Secretary of State, sell these at less than £110,000. By selling to the White Knights the future of the Community Office and the History Society could be safeguarded. The Community Office provides an information service in that part of the National Park and the open space is seen as an important aspect of the Sedbergh townscape initiative.

The YDNPA has discussed what to do with 72a Main Street many times in the last 10 years.  Coun Hilary Hodge, chairman of Sedbergh Parish Council, commented:  “It’s often been said that Sedbergh never gets its act together. We now have very wide community support for what we are doing.” She added that the YDNPA officers had been superb and had played a key part in creating  a route map for the future of the building and the open space.