The recent history of Horncastle Town Hall is very painful. Faced with the need to save money, ELDC decided that this could best be achieved by reducing services in Horncastle (demolishing the town hall, reducing the size and facilities of the local library) and spending lavish amounts on unwanted, unnecessary improvements to Louth, and on their own salaries/expenses. Despite putting on a show of allowing public input, their intention all along has only been to quash our objections so they can do exactly what they want.

The full story can be found in these articles (below). Join this group for regular updates.

We have jumped through all possible hoops, and there are barely any legal courses of action left open. The law regards the Town Hall as the property of ELDC, to do with what they wish, and we are legally powerless other than waiting for the next election to wag our democratic fingers at them--by which point the damage will have been done. And despite which, the likely instigator of these plans Mr Howells cannot be voted out as he is not an elected rep.

The only course of action left open to us, therefore, is protest. A government should be afraid of its people, and the only thing left to do if Mr Aaron and co's last appeals to common sense do not work, is to drape ourselves and the building in banners and handcuffs when the 'dozers roll up. Then sit there until they go away, or someone decides we're more trouble than we're worth.

Teenagers, grannies, EVERYONE: the Town Hall needs YOU!

More information will follow. Watch this space. Watch the paper. Watch the blogosphere.

ARTICLES ABOUT THE TOWN HALL SAGA at SAMIZDAT (strong language!)

Horncastle Town Hall Working Group (this website is completely unaffiliated with, and may not represent the views of, HTHWG or any other 'save the town hall' groups)

the FOCUS evaluation report

The article that should appear here is reproduced below because the Horncastle News are too negligent/incompetent to have corrected this fault several months since I brought it to their attention:

"FEARS over the future of Horncastle’s Town Hall site and The Wong are ‘ill-informed speculation’, according to East Lindsey District Council boss Nigel Howells. Last week the News reported Mayor Bill Aron was among those anxious to save the Town Hall unless plans for a replacement community building were in place before the planned demolition.

In a letter this week to the News, ELDC chief executive Nigel Howells said: “The district council has a good track record of investing in community and social facilities – the pool and leisure complex in Horncastle being one example.

“It is committed to working with the town council and the local community to ensure that the Town Hall and The Wong site are developed in a spirit of cooperation to meet long-term needs in the town. It has already made this commitment explicitly to the town council. The Mayor can be under no misapprehension as to the council’s intentions.

“A working group including town councillors will meet later this month to begin work on the longterm future of the site, including consideration of the scope of appropriate community facilities. “The temporary move, in September, to the library should be seen in this context.The long-term future must await the work on the town hall site.”