Backing for vital Cranbrook community facilities

Providing space for a range of services

Vital plans for a new community building to be built in currently empty Cranbrook town centre have been backed.

The multi-purpose building would provide flexible space for children’s, youth, adult and library services with potential use for public health and highways services, as well as space for the town council.

The trigger point for the provision of the children’s centre facilities– 2,000 home occupations – has been met which means the Cranbrook consortium of developers have to construct the children’s centre facilities no later than June 10, 2021.

The existing planning agreement also requires them to provide town council offices in the town centre by June 2021, and youth facilities and a library when the 3,450th home is occupied, currently expected to be in 2025.

Devon County Council’s cabinet on Wednesday morning though unanimously agreed to try and renegotiate the agreement so that the multi-purpose building can be built, and subject to funding, should be complete within the next two years.

It would be built on land that is supposed to be the town centre, but currently remains an empty green space.

Cllr Rufus Gilbert, cabinet member for economy and skills, said that bringing forward the delivery of the library and the youth services would provide the town with the services that it needed. He added negotiations were still ongoing, but he enthusiastically welcomed the move.

Cllr Sara Randall-Johnson, who represents Cranbrook, said she was delighted with the decision. She said: “There is a lot of things that Cranbrook has but we need to provide these facilities for our residents and it does need to be of the highest possible standard. This will be providing something that we need for the town.”

Cllr Alan Connett, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said that the council was doing this because it was clear of the need for it, while Cllr James McInnes, the deputy leader, said that rather than ‘putting a library here and a youth service other there’, they would be in a building used by everyone and would provide something for the community.

While nearly 2,000 homes in the new town – described as ‘one without a town centre’ – are currently occupied and while the town has a primary school, an allthrough school, a multi-purpose building with GP surgery space and a rail station, the only building that has been provided in the town centre is a public house.

Other facilities such as additional town centre shops and a food store are commercially led and the expectation is that these would be delivered by the private sector, but there are no fixed timescales for when it may happen.

Dave Black, Head of Planning, Transportation and Environment, said that the County Council community facilities building in Cranbrook town centre represented the optimal way to provide the required facilities and that the default scenario means that later, or potentially, no delivery of the buildings would leave Cranbrook’s town centre empty and lacking the needed facilities.

He added: “Given this opportunity to enhance the public realm in Cranbrook, and with it to improve community wellbeing and relations, the council will seek a range of capital funding from local and national partners to accelerate the delivery of the facilities in advance of existing trigger points.

“This scheme would result in significant public health benefits by provision of a community facility building providing dedicated space for provision of essential children’s, Public Health Nursing, youth, adult and library services.”

The cabinet unanimously approve the proposal to deliver a community facilities building in Cranbrook town centre and to empower officers to renegotiate the existing planning agreement, allow officers to seek sources of funding, and agree to the County Council’s membership of the new Cranbrook Strategic Delivery Board attended by the Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills and one of the two ward councillors.

The new Cranbrook Plan, detailing how will the town eventually develop to consisting of 7,750 homes with a population of around 18,000, has been submitted by East Devon District Council to the Secretary of State for examination.