A First-tier Charity Tribunal has required Ealing Council and the Charities Commission to revisit the proposals for Ealing Town Hall.
Ealing Council sought to market the opportunity to refurbish and redevelop Ealing Town Hall in 2014 before agreeing to a 250-year lease with Mastcraft to turn most of the Town Hall, and within that, the Victoria Hall, into a hotel.
The Charity Commission published a draft scheme 2019 to allow Ealing Council to sell off Ealing Town Hall and Victoria Hall.
The Friends of Victoria Hall raised a petition that resulted in the Tribunal.
A council spokesperson said:
“We are pleased that the Tribunal has accepted the principle of renovating Ealing Town Hall in partnership with a developer to secure its future.
“Ealing Town Hall is over 100 years old and is incredibly expensive to maintain. While we have preserved the building for the people of Ealing as best as we can, it is no longer safe, fit for purpose, or useable by all.
“Having only just received the Tribunal’s findings, we are now looking at these in more detail to consider our next steps.
“We acknowledge that we need to do more work to ensure that the Victoria Hall and other public rooms within the Town Hall remain accessible and affordable to the people of Ealing. We will continue to work with the Victoria Hall Trust, the Charity Commission, the Tribunal and others to make this a reality.
“Our priority at all times has been and will remain to preserve the historic, cultural, public and civic uses of this much-loved building and to secure its future for the century to come.”
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