AS I watch fearfully as Storm Ali lashes Millport days after a tree was blown onto our main community hall ("Island’s only community hall hit by falling tree", The Herald, September 17), I worry that the marquee erected in the grounds of Garrison House to accommodate summertime events will be blown away and leave our island with one fewer large place for people to gather. Storm Ali is a forceful reminder that a marquee on a seafront location can only ever be a summertime help in providing us with meeting space for community events.
Another tree has been blown onto the hall today (September 19), yet another reminder of how our community is suffering from a lack of investment by our local authority, North Ayrshire Council.
Most people understand that councils are struggling with financial constraints, but the reason our town hall is currently closed is because of a historic failure to carry out proper maintenance.
The town hall was and could again be the main meeting place for major community events. It would certainly be less vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather. The DA Hall has become the main events venue by default, but its capacity is less than the town hall.
Although falling trees may be a short-term problem in terms of upcoming events, it is in many ways a miracle that a wooden building initially one of many provided to house TB patients after the last world war, is still able to be used.
The island’s development company is hoping to raise sufficient funds to build a new multi-purpose hall within the grounds of Garrison House, which houses our medical centre, a cafe and the library, but welcome as this would be it is presumably some years away from fruition.
The town hall exists right now and with the right political will it could be brought back into use within a reasonable time frame.
Friends of Millport Town Hall was formed months ago because of fears that the building would be sold to a private developer because the council clearly does not want it and, crucially, because at a public meeting in the DA Hall following a consultation undertaken by the community council many members of the community expressed a strong desire for it to be saved.
The group is raising funds to get a feasibility study undertaken into whether saving the hall is a realistic ambition. We have been encouraged by the example of the recently restored Dunoon Burgh Hall after a long campaign and despite the reluctance of the town’s local authority to back campaigners.
It seems there is a disconnect between the words of encouragement about community empowerment from our political leaders in Edinburgh and the experience of campaigners on the ground.
If a local authority does not want a building it should be giving all possible help to those prepared to use it for community benefit rather than, it seems, putting bureaucratic obstacles in their way.
John McNeilly,
Treasurer, Friends of Millport Town Hall,
Marine Parade, Millport.
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