Row erupts over funding for Burgess Hill arts centre as new council tax precept announced

Councillors were asked to vote on the budget and precept for the coming financial year – £919,228 – a 2.75 per cent increase – on Monday night (January 27), when a row erupted over how the council tax precept would help fund the arts centre.

After years of work and planning by councillors and members of the community, the application for the Beehive – a 237-seat theatre and community venue, in Cyprus Road – was approved by the planning committee earlier this month.

But despite getting the go-ahead from the planning committee, the town council still faces a major challenge – money.

Council leader Robert Eggleston said £3m was already lined up – the council has budgeted for a loan of that amount. That leaves about £2m still to find.

There has been talk of a public call for money, such as a crowdfunding appeal, but Mr Eggleston said previously he hopes the planning permission also will help smooth the way with potential investors.

‘Smoke and mirrors’

Councillor Andrew Barrett-Miles (Gatehouse ward) slammed the council tax precept on Monday night, saying it did not provide ‘adequate funds’ for the centre, describing it as ‘smoke and mirrors’.

“I do not feel I am in a position to support this budget for a number of reasons,” he said.

Speaking after the meeting, he said: “The £3m loan has not been drawn yet, and if we get it, we will have to pay back £123,000 each year.

“At the moment, the budget and precept has only made provision to pay back £70,000 of that loan, which means they would have to add another six per cent to the precept to pay for it.

“The 2.75 per cent precept increase for various other things would have been a good step towards that six per cent.”

He continued: “They didn’t get the balance right. My argument is that they decided to do a lot of new things, which I thought were ambitious to say the least, but they could have scaled back on these things, just using the money that was in the budget for this year that they’re not going to use, and then they wouldn’t have to ask the taxpayer for any precept increase.

“That 2.75 per cent would make a significant contribution to the annual amount needed to repay the £3m loan.

“We need about £5m for the project all together. We were hoping to get the additional £2m through fundraising but the fundraiser thinks the maximum he can raise is £1m, therefore what he doesn’t raise, we have to borrow.

“If it is £1m, that is another £40,000 a year that we would have to pay back on that loan, which would be another significant increase on the precept – and which they would have to ask for permission from residents and this is where it all went wrong before.

“We may have to borrow some more money – this could result in a further precept increase of around 12 per cent.”

‘We are going to spin both plates’

Mr Eggleston argued that the precept supported both the Beehive and improving the town centre.

“We are not going to strip everything to build the Beehive, we are going to spin both plates – we are going to deliver on the town and the Beehive,” he commented.

He added “We are going to have to take a long hard look at how we bring this plan to fruition.

“If this means we need to have a sensible, grown up conversation with residents of Burgess Hill, then we will, but what we won’t do is assume that they support us like last time, when the council tax was increased to pay for the venue and then we had to give this money back the following year, because that is absolutely stupid.”

Councillor Joseph Foster (Meeds ward) said it was important the precept supported traders in the town centre who will suffer when the NewRiver development is built.

He also said it was important grants were given to community projects.

“There were some really good projects that didn’t receive the funding that they wanted,” he said.

“The people of Burgess Hill love our events and activities and we need to give the residents what they need. We have to invest in the town centre.”

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