Historic Liberty ballroom to close in Greenham

Greenham Common Trust landlords serve notice to quit

THE GREENHAM Common Trust has served notice to quit on leaseholders at the popular and well-established Liberty ballroom.

Trust chief executive Chris Boulton confirmed rumours that notice to quit had been served on the lessors of the ballroom, once used by serviceman at the former US airbase.

Mr Boulton said in a statement: “We have, in consultation with Liberty, agreed that, with regret, we will have to serve notice because we cannot continue to subsidise a commercial operation that is unable to pay rent and is in arrears.

“This impacts our core ability to generate charitable expenditure to benefit people in our community who need it the most, which is the core objective of the trust.

“We are reviewing the future of the site and have not made any decisions yet.”

The trust has refused to reveal the length of notice served, but some users said they had been told it had two months to quit.

The closure of the Liberty will impact upon hundreds of local users of the dance, party, sports, wedding and extensive fitness facilities which share the building.

Events have included ballroom, line, Ceroc and rock and roll dance groups, live soul, 60s, 70s and 80s and ladies party nights, alongside a newly-formed fitness club and sports hall, used for football, netball, basketball and badminton.

The decision will have ended the plans of Harry Cobb who had hoped to extend the venue’s tennis facilities after he took over running the building in October 2013, together with Lloyd Lilley, a shareholder in the business.

Both have declined to comment on the trust’s decision, but are reported to have invested considerable sums of money in the business, including a recently laid, sprung dance floor, estimated to have cost £5,000, after a leak damaged the previous floor.

The Liberty building is understood to be in need of costly repairs.

Some users said they had been told the building may be due for demolition to make way for a large storage warehouse but a spokesman for the trust, Julian May, refused to comment.

Meanwhile Mr Boulton denied the New Greenham Arts building, situated behind the ballroom on the same three-acre plot, might suffer a similar fate.

“New Greenham Arts has no connection whatsoever with these discussions,” said Mr Boulton.

Interim director of New Greenham Arts, Grant Brisland, also confirmed the arts facility was not under threat.

For more on this story, pick up a copy of the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday.