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Evington Park House to be community owned through a Community Asset Transfer
The historic Evington Park House, which overlooks Evington Park, is now in the process of becoming community owned.
Leicester City Council have called for organisations to put forward business plans for a Community Asset Transfer (CAT) for the House. The opportunity was published in response to community interest in the building back in 2022.
CATs are where the ownership and management of publicly owned buildings or land is transferred to community-based organisations, like local charities, community interest companies, oe co-operatives.
Head of neighbourhood services at the council, Lee Warner said “the council views the building as one of community benefit and has received interest from the community to run it. Where this is evident the council has a duty under the localism act which promoted a community ‘Right to Bid’, hence this approach.”
The Localism Act (2011) allows community groups time to develop bids and raise money to buy listed assets that come on the open market. This helps local communities keep these sites part of local life, ensuring they are used to meet their needs, and should stop private enterprises bidding against them. Despite this, the national membership network Locality found that more than 4,000 publicly owned buildings and spaces in England are still being sold off to private ownerships every year.
Research from Power to Change has also found that CATs can grant communities economic power. England’s 6,300 community-owned assets pump nearly £150m into local economies.
Warner said: “Previous community asset transfers have provided a range of community benefits, including community room hire, investment in facilities, and provision of services for local people. The benefit to the community will be determined by the quality of the bidding organisations and their ability to deliver services, but our experience shows that these can be extremely successful.”
Recent CAT successes include Leicester’s African Caribbean Centre in Highfields. The centre, which has been a hub for the black community for many years, transferred management from the city council to the African Heritage Alliance in January this year. It was deemed ‘a historic moment’ by the Alliance.
Over the years, Evington Park House has gone from a private family home, an auxiliary hospital and a base for the Home Guard Platoon until it was bought by the Corporation of Leicester — the city council's predecessor — in 1948.
Since then, the space has mainly been used by the council as offices and for community hires.
Two community organisations with an interest in the House include Friends of Evington and Best Community Charity. Their shared vision will be to turn Evington Park House into a hub for the community of Evington, including educational workshops, courses, cultural activities and green spaces for sport and community use.
A spokesperson for Friends of Evington said their application: “will show how we can benefit the local people. It would be a place where people in the Evington area and surrounding areas could come and find out information and benefit from services they might want, including community managed group activities.”
Raj Sharma from the Best Community Charity said they: “would like to host some dance and entertainment classes to help members of the community better express themselves, the facilities would also benefit as a headquarters for our existing sport opportunities for the youth and lunch club activities for the elderly.”
He said they would: “continue to listen to the local community and be good communicators to ultimately provide something that can align with our own aims and objectives and also be something that the community itself will be interested in.”
The leased areas of Evington Park House include all three floors, the front and back gardens as well as a small car park.
Other organisations that are interested must put forward a CAT Expression of Interest, an application and a business case. The business case should include details of the organisation, impacts on neighbourhoods, sustainability and more.
Warner also reiterated that organisations should be able: “to take on the full running of the building including its repairs and maintenance. Community organisations must be legally constituted to be considered, and should demonstrate a sound financial footing.”
🌦️ Monday: A bright start with some morning sunshine with temperatures rising to 20C by early afternoon. Cloud will then build to bring us some rain later afternoon into the evening. A mild damp night 12C.
⛈️🌦️ Tuesday-Friday: A very showery day on Tuesday with some heavy and thundery showers around with a max of 20C. Wedsnedat and Thursday will see more sunshine and just the odd shower. Temperatures will max at 22C. Friday will be dry and bright with some sunshine max 21C.
🌧️ Weekend: It looks like more rain heading in from the West on Saturday with cooler temperatures at 19C with showers again on Sunday. A max temperature of 20C.
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Estate Agent Website
