At our AGM, we realised that this is a good time to ask our MP to encourage Somerset Council to take action to get empty buildings on our high street back into use – one of them could even provide a place for us to set up a community centre!
Below is a template for you to use as a letter you can write to Adam Dance and our council leader, Mike Best. Our Chair has already sent one, but the more people who write the more likely they are to take action!
Letter to Adam Dance: adam.dance.mp@parliament.uk
Please copy in Councillor Mike Best: mike.best@somerset.gov.uk
You need to add your home address, phone number and email here – otherwise he will not reply. You also need to live in his constituency!
Re: Crewkerne Community Kitchen CIC/Open Doors Somerset
Dear Mr Dance,
I am a supporter of Open Doors Somerset, and I am writing to you about our efforts to set up a community centre in Crewkerne. As you know from when you visited our food distribution last year, we have been trying to find suitable premises since April last year, when we launched a crowdfunder campaign to get a valuation on the former NatWest Bank which has sat empty since it closed six years ago.
We raised £1600 from members of the local community, but the owner had a very different view of the building’s value; he thinks it is worth more than he paid in 2019, even with the building having a hole in the roof following a serious fire in February 2021. As a result we could not negotiate with him.
In December we wrote to your colleague and the leader of Somerset Council, Mike Best, reminding him about the new legislation the government introduced last year, that gives councils the power to get empty high street buildings back into active use.
You can read more about it here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/huge-boost-for-high-streets-as-councils-get-new-powers
Dentons the solicitors have produced a useful guide giving more details of how the new powers work:https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/articles/2024/november/19/high-street-rental-auctions-coming-into-force-on-december-2-2024.
Our chair spoke to Cllr. Best about this recently, and told him that he has tried unsuccessfully to start a new dialogue with the owner of the NatWest. He urged him to speak to the council officers about implementing the powers he has to take action right now on this building, and indeed on the two other buildings on our high street which have remained unused for many years.
Clearly getting these buildings into active use will help bring new life to our town, and increase revenues for the council through business rates and possibly council tax. I urge you to encourage Cllr Best and the rest of Somerset Council to take immediate action on these empty buildings.
At Open Doors Somerset (the new trading name for Crewkerne Community Kitchen CIC) we are working to ready our organisation to set up a community centre when we find appropriate premises. We have raised funds to employ a project co-ordinator, a fridge co-ordinator and a fundraiser; these are all helping professionalise our operation, and make us more resilient.
Earlier this year we were approached by Ark At Egwood to join them, Chard Community Hub and the Chard WATCH Project to form a closer working relationship where we share ideas and resources to better serve the people of south Somerset. We have put in a joint bid to the National Lottery which if successful will further strengthen all our organisations.
With the backing of the Open Mental Health Network we have launched a weekly Chat Café which has provided a valued space for people to find support and encouragement. The national charity Sport In Mind is supporting us to start a Table Tennis wellbeing session in September, and we are also starting a Repair Cafe in the same month. You can read more about us on our revamped website – www.opendoorssomerset.org.uk.
If and when we find the right premises, we will be in a good position to make use of the space and expand our activities to meet the growing needs of our local community. We already have contact with local schools including the Apex project at Maiden Beech school for pupils at risk of exclusion, and it’s keen to see an alternative space in the community where their pupils can take part in a range of activities. This is just one example of the many uses this space could host.
I hope you’ll support us by encouraging Somerset Council to take action now over empty buildings on our high street.
Yours sincerely,
Your name here
