Easton Parish Council faces bankruptcy over community centre

Easton Parish Council is in financial turmoil and cannot afford to cover the soaring costs of the project, which has hit huge setbacks since work began several years ago.

Des Fulcher, a member of the council, admitted the authority is not in a position to repay a £500,000 loan it secured for the new community centre and has found itself in a "dire mess" as the scheme remains thousands of pounds short of its required budget.

He claims the project was overambitious and far grander than it needed to be.

"The new centre is completely inappropriate and has become a white elephant for the council. It is the O2 of Easton," he added.

He believes Easton Parish Council may have to issue a section 114 notice - a formal declaration of bankruptcy and admission that the authority can no longer balance its books.

If so, it would become one of only a dozen councils across the country to have found itself in this position over the last decade, and the only one in this region and the only parish council to do so.

The new Easton Community Centre in Marlingford Road (Image: Denise Bradley) COMMUNITY CENTRE CHAOS

The village, on the outskirts of Norwich, is one of the fastest-growing in Norfolk, with hundreds of new homes planned for the area.

To meet the needs of the growing population, Easton Parish Council officially launched its plans to build a multi-use community centre in Marlingford Road to replace its existing village hall in October 2021.

The centre is designed to include offices, a bar and kitchen, changing facilities, and a main hall suitable for activities including badminton, yoga, gymnastics, martial arts, concerts, discos, meetings and cinema screenings.

The ambitious project, around three times the size of the existing facility, has hit several hurdles since work began. 

The old village hall is still in use (Image: Denise Bradley) Construction work started last year but came to a halt after just a few months when the main contractor behind the scheme went into administration, resulting in delays while the parish council scrabbled to appoint a company to complete the remaining works. 

While the community centre was hoped to be completed last autumn, this target was pushed back to May this year - but work remains incomplete. 

The scheme was initially forecast to cost around £1.5m but this has risen dramatically since it was unveiled, due to inflation pushing up the price of manpower and materials, and councillors now believe it will come to a total of more than £3m.

The cost was expected to be covered through various loans, co-investment with South Norfolk Council and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) money - a charge which can be levied by local authorities on housing developers who are building in the area.

Easton, near Norwich (Image: Denise Bradley) FINANCIAL TURMOIL

Des Fulcher, who has been a member of the council since February, said the authority cannot fill the remaining funding gap and is unable to repay £500,000 it borrowed from the Public Works Loan Board.

The council had hoped to solve much of its debt through CIL payments from a 900-home development by Persimmon Homes - which will expand the village by 150pc when completed. 

The new housing development in Easton (Image: Denise Bradley) He said: "Councillors need to come clean about the financial position of the authority and make it known what sort of dire mess we're in.

"Members started jumping ship when I joined the council and started asking questions - almost all of the people involved in the conception of this project have resigned.

"Money has been spent on the pretence of getting it back from CIL payments but the timeframes just haven't lined up. Easton is going to suffer for infrastructure because we can't afford anything else.

"They're going to go bankrupt and need to warn people that they're going to be paying more council tax to fix this mess."

Mr Fulcher is a former district councillor (Image: Denise Bradley) Mr Fulcher, who was a Conservative member of South Norfolk Council between 2015 and 2019 but has since joined the Liberal Democrats, said the project is still around £0.5m short of funding. 

COUNCIL IN THE RED

While councils cannot technically go bankrupt, they can issue a section 114 notice, if its chief financial officer believes it will be unable to meet its expenditure commitments from its income. 

This notice means the council cannot make new spending commitments.

The unfinished community centre (Image: Denise Bradley) Previously, most councils in this situation have then passed an amended budget reducing spending on services.

Recently, more councils have sought permission from the government to sell assets or properties to top up their funds.

There are only 14 authorities to have issued a section 114 notice and these have all been borough, city or county councils, which have far larger budgets - as well as more ways to increase income.

South Norfolk Council, which has previously provided significant funding for the village hall project, has been working alongside the parish to help it navigate this unique situation.

A spokesman said: "Easton Parish Council is a statutory body in its own right, and we have limited jurisdiction over its operations or decisions.

"However, we have been made aware of the issues Easton is facing, and we are currently supporting them in understanding the scale of their problems and exploring their potential options moving forward."

Easton Parish Council declined to comment.