Halesowen community venue is put up for sale by council
Halesowen's Cornbow Hall has been put up for sale by council bosses who revealed the town centre venue is losing £100,000 a year.
Dudley Council is in negotiations to sell the hall, which has been home to concerts, pantomime and comedy shows for a number of years, as well as finding alternative uses as a community centre.
Councillor Simon Phipps, cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, said: "Like any organisation, the Council must seek the best possible value for tax-payers money.
"Unfortunately, the Cornbow Hall has been losing over £100,000 per year, which clearly in the current climate is no longer sustainable.
"This has been the case for some time, and back in 2018 the Council took the decision to try to find an organisation to run the venue.
"It was hoped that another organisation could take on the venue and turn it around. Despite significant levels of public interest at the time, and a number of proposals being put forward over several years, none have proved viable and we have now exhausted every reasonable option to keep the Hall open.
"More recently, an offer has been made to purchase the Hall by the current leaseholders of the building.
"Given there are no reasonable alternatives to keep the Hall operated by the Council without the continued significant losses of tax-payers money, we have to take every option seriously and the offer we have received to purchase the freehold of the building appears to be the best financial option we have.
"I must reiterate that we’re continuing with the negotiations to sell the venue due to our inability to identify an organisation who could manage the Hall independently.
"At this stage we’re not able to confirm what the building may or may not be used for in the future.
"I understand this may come as a disappointment to those who used it as a community venue, as it is for myself and my colleagues, but we will work closely with them to find suitable alternative venues."
The news of the planned sale has been met with disappointment by Vicky Rogers, Halesowen Business Improvement District (BID) manager, who said it was an historic part of the town.
She said: "Halesowen doesn't have a huge night time economy, but this was something which really added to it and I know a lot of people would be really sad to see it go.
"I'm interested to see who's going to take over and what they plan to do as Halesowen is a thriving town and it would be wonderful to have a new and vibrant service running this venue.
"The town is one of the best performing for recovery after the pandemic and we've got so much going for us with Halesowen in Bloom and and the passionate community behind it, so I hope someone can buy it and invest in it."
