Town Mead

Further to our press release please see the below questions raised in relation to Town Mead.

  1. CCTV has been down for approximately 8 weeks the contractor has confirmed that this will back up and running the week commencing 22nd May.
  2. The Town Council has had a licence at the Town Mead club to serve alcohol to 12.30am going back to at least 2008 and has been holding functions there which have ended at 1am since this time and therefore sees no issue with a new licence being granted for times matching this.
  3. The tenant runs another venue in North London (since 2007) successfully and has passed relevant referencing checks.
  4. The tenant has a right to request any licencing hours that they wish, it is for the licencing committee to reach out to all interested parties, including police, fire and local councillors and gauge the responses received to ensure suitability. The Town Council does not have authority over licencing, it is the sole jurisdiction of Epping Forest District Council. The tenant has now reduced his request to match the times of the licence previously held by the Town Council.
  5. The building was given Sport England funds in 1996 which had a 21-year interest which expired in 2017 as confirmed by Sport England, they do not hold an interest in the building and the Town Council is free to change the use of the building as it sees fit.
  6. The building will be available for the community (and anyone) to book, much like it was when council run.
  7. The Town Council chose to shut the bar in its previous state due to the significant loses that it had continued to make for a number of years, long before the covid-19 pandemic hit, initially it was going to be refurbished, however when the council did a full assessment of this it realised that it was not in a position to be able to fund this for a building that had made such significant loses.
  8. The Town Council chose bringing an income into the Town Rather than funding an underutilised public building for the very small numbers of people using the building, the many were paying for the use of a few.
  9. The parking situation has always been made clear to the tenant, as with most events, those travelling in private cars will do so in groups not individually, upon speaking with them, the town council understands that its other venue has no parking and has run successfully.
  10. There is no permanent bar planned for the venue, most events will be table service with pop-up bars available at the request of the hirer, it cannot be assumed that these events will be any more “alcohol fuelled” then the events that the town council has held.
  11. Legal requirements for events up to 600 people are that 2 fire exits are required, whilst the tenant has completed extensive building works, they have ensured that there are still 2 fire exits, they are hoping that by closing in the many additional exits that there will be a significant reduction in the noise to the outside of the building.
  12. The tenant is hoping to bring a beautiful, sophisticated event space to Waltham Abbey.
  13. The tenant has confirmed that they have security at their events. This will help with preventing Anti-Social behaviour as well as the CCTV.
  14. The annual rent whilst no concrete plans have been made as to what will happen with this money, the funds will be used to benefit the community. This decision will be made by the Council.
  15. It should be noted that since the Town Mead club closed, Anti-Social behaviour at the park has risen, whilst it cannot be said for sure, having a venue open there till late and knowing there is less room to slip under the radar may once again act as a deterrent for this behaviour.
  16. Street lighting is something that is managed by Essex County Council and not Waltham Abbey Town Council.
  17. There is a Defibrillator in Town Mead. This is working and regularly inspected.
  18. If the Tenant decided to have a break in the lease the council will decide how this is managed.