Further to the recent story Wiltshire Council pulls the wheels off Wagon Yard the Council have responded to our request for a statement. Tamara Reay (Cabinet Member for Assets) told Marlborough.news:
“While we want to do what we can to help businesses like Wagon Yard Artists to thrive and continue to enrich our communities, this has to be balanced against the need to generate income from our commercial units and ensure value for taxpayers.
“This is an historic licence, with the licence fee not being reviewed for some time. As it is now coming to an end we are looking to bring it in line with other occupiers of Wagon Yard. We appreciate the challenges this may cause for Wagon Yard Artists, however the purpose of the council’s commercial estate is to charge market rate rents which generate income to support the delivery of council services.
“We are passionate about supporting businesses to thrive across Wiltshire and there are several funding streams and initiatives that businesses can take advantage of including expert, one-to-one and peer-to-peer business support, events, specialist programmes and resources, and access to funding through the Growth Hub.
“Through our Wiltshire Towns Programme we have invested £4 million since 2021 into our towns to improve their tourism offer and create and sustain a thriving economy for high street businesses. The allocation is based on population and Marlborough has received a fair share. Grants are also issued from Marlborough Area Board including £10,000 in support for new business start-ups in empty high street shops. Since 2021, Marlborough Area Board has invested over £165,000 in local projects.”
So we can see from the Wiltshire Council statement above that they eventually issued the ‘what and why’ regarding the rent increase.
But….. The building is in a pretty rough condition, needs work – which will cost. And the ‘lease’ (as noted above, actually a ‘licence’, agreed and issued by Kennet District Council some years ago) would (likely) be the equivalent of an ‘IRI’ today. At the risk of getting a bit technical, this is an ‘Internal Repairing and Insuring’ lease, which means that the current freeholder (Wiltshire Council) is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the structure.
However, see the pics below, now that the kilns have been turned off there is no real heat source and black mould is spreading again (see pics below). And there is a sizeable diagonal crack through which water gushes when the river is high and floods.
So what has Wiltshire Council done about this? (answer, as far as we can understand – a minimal amount, almost nothing). And if they do take the building back and re-let it, it will very likely be on a FRI (Full Repairing and Insuring) lease which means that the new occupier will be responsible for the structure of the building.
Whilst Tamara Reay notes that “we are looking to bring it in line with other occupiers of Wagon Yard”, are any of the other buildings occupied in Wagon Yard in a similarly poor condition?
Would any new occupier then want to take the building as it is, in its current state? Their decision, but it will cost a significant sum to get into some acceptable order, and this would be on top of the new rent, which – if Wiltshire Council are being straight about this – would be the same that they are now demanding from Jacqui and Wagon Yard (£950 per month).
We can see and read the statement, but is that all? Have all the costs been fully taken into account? Or recognition of the importance of the Wagon Yard institution to the artistic community and cultural scene within Marlborough. Not questions that we can answer, we are not privy to the workings of Wiltshire Council decision-making processes, but questions that we would ask….