That really is good news. Let's hope there's some innovative thinking for its long term future.

A new community centre with a selection of different sized rooms and perhaps even an area out front for a weekend fresh produce market would be a good idea.

You could have quite a reasonable market if you included the frontage of the Loveless hal in the redesign. Do away with that sloping grass and create a village square.

And here's The Gazette story.

Misinformation in Gazette and Standard implies police station and houses were in use until recent months.  In fact neither house lived in on a regular basis for decades and office manned only 2 hours a week in recent years.  It did of course provide a loo and a kettle for officers passing through, but these facilities they now enjoy at the fire station.  And a mobile police office seems to arrive at Cedric's on Friday lunchtimes.

Thanks for clarifying Tom.

If renting out the houses is a short term move until WTC has decided what to do with its (our) new property if, as you say, they have been pretty much empty for the past 40 years they must need a lot of work to bring them up to a standard where they can be rented out? Or has maintenance, decorating, modernising etc been ongoing over the decades?

Will this purchase of the police houses for future community use impact on attempts to buy the St John Ambulance hall for the same purpose?

Not in terms of costs, and probably not for the short and medium term use. WTC has purchased the police houses via a separate funding deal. The Wivenhoe Community Trust has its own access to finance and a proposed business model.

So in reality then the plan is too rent out the houses for the foreseeable future? 20 to 30 years is a very long time! I had imagined from the Mayor's comment in the Gazette article that we could expect something to be done with the property in the next year or so :

From the Gazette - Mayor Robert Needham said: “The land has crucial strategic importance for Wivenhoe. This is a wonderful opportunity to secure a bright future for the site, an opportunity to do something that will benefit the people of Wivenhoe and meet their expectations.”

I understood that the purchase of the police houses was to secure the plot for future, not immediate community use and in the immediate future to safeguard against purchase by a developer.

I imagine the renting out may have something to do with the WTC's duty to recoup the money borrowed for the purchase.

I understood the same... just imagined that community use might come a little sooner than 20 or 30 years.

I've also just noticed that Jason says "It may be that in future (20 - 30?) years that a community facility could be established..." The word 'may' would seem to infer that community use is not necessarily going to be on the agenda after all. Perhaps Jason could clarify whether this is the case or just the way he worded his post.

Don't know where Jason got 20-30 years from, but note it is followed by a question mark.  Marika is quite right, it was vital to keep this site out of the hands of developers (nice big block of flats perhaps); it sits between the Loveless Hall (already owned by WTC) and the WTC offices/Royal Mail (freehold owned by CBC).  Of course the end idea is community use, but you may have noticed money is a bit tight at the moment.  WTC has borrowed the purchase money and rental income will service that loan until such time as it's possible to do something bold.  I can't see that taking anything like 20 years.  WLH was built for a town of 2,500, and also was built on the cheap and has therefore always been expensive to maintain.  The police houses and station were built for a totally different way of policing and the council offices were built by WUDC which actually had powers, dustcarts even!  So, none of it fit for purpose.  And as for the third world shanty town of tatty garages and retired shipping containers that lie behind it all - words fail!  I have a dream of knocking down the whole lot and building a proper civic centre, a dream I sold to a local architect several years ago, since when he regularly sends architectural students to examine it and come up with ideas as a second-year project.  Can't see it ever happening, to be honest, but my second preference would be for WTC to partner with a public hall charity formed for the purpose (which would be eligible for different grant streams than the council) to build a nice big new hall with moveable partitions to make 2 or 3 smaller venues....  don't get me started!

By now most will know that this has long been an aim of WTC and the chance was jumped at as soon as the police moved out.  It has taken a while.  Many may not know that students from Anglia Ruskin University, under the guidance of Andrew Claiborne, have been using that Wivenhoe site as a project to design a large Civic Centre encompassing all one would expect in such a building.  I had the honour twice to meet the students in successive years and then see the finished articles.  Stunning they are too and represent the dream building that our large community deserves.  One day maybe, but in the meantime the site is secure.  The houses are being refurbished, as is the office and will eventually be available to rent.  The income will go towards furnishing the loan from the Municiple Loan Board.  Some of the designs were shown at the last Annual Town Meeting.  Purchasing the property was a no brainer and had to be grasped swiftly. 

The big plan is a long way off, so in answer to an earlier comment the St John's Hall needs to be saved to supplement the overstretched spaces available.

Brian  

One of the proposals for a new Civic Centre in Wivenhoe was shortlisted for the Urban Design Group Student Award 2011 and can be viewed here.

http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/fst/news/news_archive/urban_design_awards.html