On a recent visit to the Magna Carta exhibition in the newly refurbished old shoe shop now reborn as our Town Hall, we were impressed by the professionally presented display.
However, there seems to be a very small numbers of visitors and suspect that they are unlikely to significantly increase in the future.
Contrast this with ex councillor Nigel Kay’s statement when attempting to justify the saddling of Faversham Town Council with a fifty year debt of around £2.6 million in order to buy and convert 12 Market Place as council offices, ‘heritage hub’ and home for the
Magna Carta.
“We really hope we can put Faversham on the map – similar to the pull of Dover Castle”
See Eye’s 1 and 2 for more information.
The great mystery is why the Alexander Centre, once owned by Faversham Borough Council as its municipal offices and later by Swale Borough Council, was handed over to the
current occupants, the Alexander Centre CIC, in a government asset transfer.
This would have provided a perfect base for the Town Council in a landmark building with suitable space for the ‘heritage hub’ next door the Fleur de Lis Centre, home to the Faversham Society. Also, there would have been extra spaces that could have produced a significant income for the Council. Surely the cost of repairs to the building would
have been less than that incurred in purchasing and converting the much smaller ex shoe shop.
However, I am sure that Conservative ex councillors Nigel Kay and Michael Cosgrove could explain the economic logic involved in the transactions.
