Many of you will now know about the decision by Haringey Council’s Cabinet to move ahead with the procurement process for Hornsey Town Hall.

You can watch the webcam of the meeting here; the section on Hornsey Town Hall begins at 30’43”.

It’s worth listening to because it contains several references to the importance of community access and use at the Town Hall alongside a comment from the Leader, Cllr Claire Kober, who says that if the right solution can’t be found, the Council needs to be bold enough to “regroup and take the tough decision of saying it’s probably rught that we don’t go down this route … either stop the procurement and go out again or rethink the strategy more fundamentally.”

We’re very aware that there were very many representations to the council ahead of the Cabinet meeting asking them to delay the process.   We completely understand this but in the light of the council decision being made, we think it’s vitally important for the Trust to play its part in the current procurement process to ensure that there is a voice for the community in that process and that we hold the Council to account.

What happens next?

There is an HTH steering group meeting on 29 June, which the Trust attends with the Council, after which we will report back in more detail.

The procurement brief for developers/operators will be jointly-drafted and we also expect our consultation report to be published as part of that brief.

We have asked that the scoring of the evaluation is formalised (we know that community access and use will score 30% of the marks, more than any other part of the tender).

We have asked how developer/operators will engage with the community.

We are currently in discussion with LBH on how best to ensure that all interested parties, whether it is a local community organisation, a specialist arts operator, a higher education body, and so on, can be included in the procurement process and introduced to developer/operators within the OJEU process.

We also want to know how the quality of the tenders will be evaluated, particularly in relation to the architectural heritage of the building.

We also need to ensure that the tender is publicised as widely as possible to attract developers and operators with a creative, imaginative and sustainable vision for the Town Hall and the Town Hall square.

In September 2015, a brief will be published on Contracts Finder, the portal where all local government tenders are published (www.gov.uk/contracts-finder).    If the timetable remains the same, PQQs will need to be in during October, with invitations to tender going out in November and the deadline for receiving tenders, April 2016

 

In the meantime

We would love to hear your thoughts and concerns.  We are also looking at similar projects around the UK which showcase the type of uses that might work in Hornsey Town Hall.

 

Here are a couple for starters:

Shoreditch Town Hall (www.shoreditchtownhall.com)

Southwark Town Hall (www.alumnodevelopments.com/projects/southwark-town-hall)

 

Please tell us about projects you know about and come and visit them with us.

 

Email us: hornseytownhalltrust@gmail.com

Facebook  HornseyTownHallCreativeTrust

@Hornsey_T_Hall