CONCERNED residents have launched a petition following a failed town council bid to take over an empty community building.

Barnard Castle Town Council, along with the Citizens Advice Bureau and Association of Teesdale Day Clubs put forward plans in September to take over Woodleigh in Flatts Road.

The Victorian villa - once home to the tourist information centre until its 2011 closure - was originally gifted to the people in 1939 by town clerk Ingram Dawson and was used up until recently by several community groups.

The town council proposed to rent it for £2,575 a year while subletting it to the two charities. It also planned to invest around £90,000 to maintain the building over the course of the 15-year lease.

However, Durham County Council, which now control Woodleigh, rejected the bid - the only one offered - saying it fell significantly short of the building’s value.

Now dozens of residents have signed a petition started by resident Elizabeth Gott, who encouraged the community to get behind the project.

“I think it looks like a really well thought through plan, to me it makes sense,” she said. “It’s a plan that should not cost anybody more than they are paying already.

“People do feel quite passionate about it and anybody you talk to can see the sense in it.”

Town clerk, Michael King, said the town council welcomed her petition.

“By securing the use of the building and maintaining it as a central point for local services, it hoped that the county council would see the benefits to local people and to the fabric of this important community asset,” he said.

“We welcome Mrs Gott’s petition and hope that people who feel strongly that the county council should be supporting local services in Barnard Castle will get behind it and make their views known.”

However, MP Helen Goodman said government cuts made the plan impossible for Durham County Council to accept.

“Using Woodleigh for community organisations is a lovely idea, but if they can’t pay a commercial rent it’s a non-starter,” she said.

Ian Thompson, Durham County Council’s corporate director for regeneration and economic development, said no decisions had yet been made about Woodleigh’s future and that the council are due to meet with the town council next week to discuss it.

You can sign the petition at Barnard Castle’s post office, The Hayloft, Curlews Book

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