The all-important detail:
As expected, our fundraising campaign has focused minds and started conversations – not all of them fully informed, which to some extent was our fault, but it was a difficult message to get across in headline bullet points.
We now have a valuation for the site of £125k, which is about what we had always expected.
We have since had many discussions with the NPEL, the NSRC and the NLTA independently to see if we can find a way to reach an agreement on how to proceed that would satisfy all parties, as we are now at the point where we need a formal understanding in writing so that we can convert the pledges received, now standing at £106k, into donations.
This was always going to be the difficult part, as there is and always has been a gulf between expectations on all sides. The hope was that by broadening the deal out to encompass more than just the site in questions, we would be able to find a route through, and indoor padel tennis courts on the Squash Club site was the suggested vehicle for this.
Whilst this is not dead as an option, it is not something any of the parties are ready to consider at this moment within the time constraints we are working to. With no alternatives on offer, we have therefore concluded that we will have to limit our fundraising to £150k (approximating to the valuation plus costs) and wait for the NLTA to put the site on the open market on July 6th.
Depending on the outcome of that, we will either enter into discussions with the new owners to see if we could work collaboratively with them, or if no buyer comes forward, re-enter negotiations with the NLTA at a more reasonable asking price based on these valuations. This is a high-risk strategy given that we don’t know who will buy the site but we do know the NLTA have no desire or need to sell the site for less than their asking price of £300k.
In the meantime, however, once we have reached that figure of £150k with pledges of support, and the NLTA have confirmed the boundaries of the site they are selling, we will be making a formal offer.