Youth Centre on the Salisbury Road Rec – who actually owns it?

Back in 2017 Marlborough Town Council agreed a seven year lease on the Youth Centre building on the Salisbury Road recreation ground which, they understood and believed was the first stage towards a complete asset transfer – i.e. the Youth Centre would come under the ownership of Marlborough Town Council.

Or so they thought.

But with that lease due to expire in the summer of next year – June 2024 – Wiltshire Council are saying something different, no asset transfer, just a renewal of the seven year lease.

What happened, how did this come about? Prior to the 2017 agreed lease the Youth Centre had been managed in its entirety by Wiltshire Council. But it was in a state of near-complete dilapidation. Was it about to fall down? No, not quite that bad but in dire need of work to make it useable again. Wiltshire Council were not prepared to invest in the building so, the likelihood was that it may well fall into a state of complete disrepair and then need to be demolished, and at the time this would have been seen as a major setback as the town would lose a valuable resource – its only youth centre and that whole area, the recreation ground, would suffer as a result. With likely growth of anti-social behaviour, etc. Not a good or positive outlook.

So Marlborough Town Council stepped in, agreed to the seven year lease (with the understanding that this would turn into a permanent asset transfer at some point later), and then started to invest in renovating the building, which was done (at a significant expense to the town) so that it could be put to good use, as it has been over recent years since the work was carried out.

But now that the building has been restored and made useable, it has a ‘re-established value’ and Wiltshire Council appear to want to take advantage of that. And all the expense put in by Marlborough Town Council – out of the pockets of the residents – will have been wasted.

But there is one drawback: there is a covenant on the building (it’s to be used as a Youth Centre) which would preclude Wiltshire Council selling it on for a different use. So who would buy it? Or who could buy it? This obviously has a significant bearing on the value of the building.

This was a topic of intense discussion at last night’s meeting of the full Town Council (Monday 27 March). Whilst the documentation didn’t specify the extended ownership details at the time when the lease was agreed, it was the understanding between those parties to the arrangement that the building ownership would be transferred in time, which would be justification for the significant expenditure outlay on the part of the Town Council. So what’s next…………