Tomorrow, Saturday March 17th, there will be a public consultation on the proposal from Stroud Town Council to run the Subscription Rooms. The consultation is from 10am until 12 noon on Saturday March 17th in the George Room at the Subscription Rooms.
District council staff and elected councillors will be on hand to answer questions. Members of the Task and Finish Group and representatives from Stroud Town Council will be at this event.
A summary of Stroud Town Council’s offer can be found here. https://www.stroud.gov.uk/…/appendix-1-summary-of-stroud-to…
After the public consultation, the Task and Finish Group will review the offer and the public consultation response, before making a recommendation to the council’s Strategy and Resources Committee meeting on Thursday 12th April.
The process started in October 2016 when all political parties at Stroud District Council agreed to a review of the Subscription Rooms because it is no longer able to afford to continue to run the 184-year-old venue.
An all-party task and finish group was set up to investigate possible options and the freehold of Stroud Subscription Rooms and the associated forecourt was advertised for sale in July 2017. However, after the council listened to public concerns about selling it, it was withdrawn from sale in December 2017 and bids were invited from prospective tenants instead to run the venue for public arts, community use and entertainment. Offers from community organisations, individuals and companies were sought by the council for a lease of around 30 years.
The deadline for offers closed on 5th March. Only one offer was received—from Stroud Town Council. https://www.stroud.gov.uk/…/proposal-received-for-stroud-su…