Bath Place left ‘isolated’

The Bath Place Community Venture, based at the Old Library on York Road in Leamington Spa, has been left “isolated” as it faces eviction from the site.

The future of BPCV at the Old Library site is hanging in the balance as the community centre faces eviction. Warwickshire College, who own the site, want to sell the site for the development of luxury flats to pay for repairs to their main site.

On Thursday 9 August, ‘Tag exclusive properties’ submitted an application to Warwick District Council to convert the Old Library site into 28 luxury flats.

The community venture has experience a further blow as the new Leamington Grid will be located in the Town Hall.

It was hoped the old library site would be considered for the new learning grid when Student Council voted to mandate the sabbatical officers to lobby the University to consider Bath Place as a site for such a space.

The University would not comment on why the Town Hall was chosen over the old library but stressed the new grid was just a pilot.

“There is no final decision yet as to where that long term presence will be,” said Peter Dunn, head of communications. “Our focus in this project remains on how best to meet the needs of our students in Leamington.”

James Entwistle, Education Officer at Warwick SU, told the Boar, “The Former Union officers presented a paper in favour of Bath Place as a location for a possible Leamington Study Space. It is an issue the officers took seriously and in a few cases personally as we realise how important the space is to the community.

“We were unsuccessful with this bid, but will continue to lobby where possible and work to support the campaign to protect the community space.”

[pullquote style=”left” quote=”dark”]Bath Place is run by local volunteers who help the Leamington community. Many students help out with the project and the venue has been used by clubs and societies in the past.[/pullquote]

BPCV has recently played a part in securing £100,000 worth of government investment in the Old Town area of Leamington, as part of the so called ‘Portas Pilot’ project which helps rejuvenate dilapidated High Streets across England.

Clayton Denwood, BPCV’s site manager, told the Guardian that the issue is, “the number of groups that will have no affordable place for their activities or enterprises [should they be evicted]; we’re costing the taxpayer nothing but need the facilities with which to provide our service.”

The BPCV has been based at the Grade II listed Old Library site since a fire destroyed their former premises at All Saints Primary School in September 2009 and Warwickshire College offered use of the Old Library Site, which had been vacant since 2003. BPCV state they have spent over £120,000 renovating the site since 2009.

Comments, complaints and objections can be submitted to Warwick District Council about the planning application, the deadline is 17 September 2012.

The Community Venture has recently launched a new website: pulltogether.org.uk