Thatcham's oldest building to get annual grant from town council

Thatcham Town Council finance and general purposes committee agree to donate £1,000 every year to the trust in exchange for 15 days’ use of the historical building.
At the meeting on Monday, the chairman of the trustees, Clive Williams, spoke on behalf of the charity to explain what it was doing to raise funds for the refurbishment of the Grade I-listed building to bring it back into public use.
He said the works that needed to be completed had been split into three sections, with priority repairs to the structure costing £120,000. Since the building, located on the A4, was leased to the trust by the town council in 2004, the charity has applied for various grants, and, at the end of last year, a promise of £60,000 was secured from Greenham Common Trust if match funding could be obtained.
Mr Williams said that an application was to be submitted soon to the Wolfson Foundation for £60,000, and that other bodies had been approached in order to secure a further £80,000 for ‘highly desirable’ work.
Town councillor Owen Jeffery (Lib Dem, Thatcham South and Crookham) said that the council should support the charity as it had stopped the building being sold off.
He said that considering what had already been achieved by the trust, this was a “very, very reasonable request”, and added: “It has the potential to be an extremely worthwhile investment by the town council.”
The leader of the town council, Lee Dillon (Lib Dem, Thatcham north), added: “The ability to have a unique venue within the town and also look to extend the use should be credited.”
The committee decision to provide £1,000 a year was unanimous.
Mr Williams said that a funding stream from the council could help attract other donations, and that, in the future, the trust would like to be in the financial position to have a paid employee as everyone working to rescue the building was currently doing so on a voluntary basis.
He said: “It will help us in the long-term to have a regular income.”
In 2003, West Berkshire Council was planning to put the former chapel and school – described by English Heritage as “one of the most important buildings in the area and of national importance” – up for auction, after the antique should that had been running from the site closed down.
Following public outcry, ownership was transferred to the town council, which then leased it to the trust on a 99 year lease.