Wensum Lodge Update
Wensum lodge has been the home of adult education in Norfolk for over 40 years. Many thousands of residents have taken advantage of the courses on offer. It holds a special place in the hearts of Norfolk residents and is a site that has historical and cultural significance. The County Council’s decision to sell off Wensum Lodge is incredibly short-sighted and is a waste of a huge amount of potential.
The petition that you signed gained more than 5,500 signatures – a huge response showing the depth of feeling against the sell-off. Frustratingly however, around 900 of these signatures were deemed to be invalid by the county council, which means that the petition did not meet the 5,000 signatures threshold required by the county council to automatically trigger a debate on the issue.
But we are not giving up!
On September 26 from 8:30am there will be a protest outside County Hall to show the Conservative-run councillors that the local community want Wensum Lodge to stay and are opposed to the sell-off of public assets. You can sign up to come to the demonstration here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/demonstration-stop-the-sell-off-of-wensum-lodge
Green councillors have submitted a motion to the September County Council meeting on 26 September calling for the county council to reverse the decision to sell off Wensum Lodge and establish a transparent and accountable process for consulting with the local community before selling off public assets (this applies to the Angel Road school site as well as Wensum Lodge).
In July, Green Party County Councillor Jamie Osborn proposed a motion via the county council’s scrutiny committee to support a Labour Party call-in of the decision and reverse the sell-off of Wensum Lodge on the grounds that there was no public consultation, but this was voted down by the Conservatives.
Recently, local campaigners have succeeded in getting Wensum Lodge listed as an Asset of Community Value. This will not prevent the sell-off, but it will mean that the local community is able to bid for the site for up to 5 years. We will keep you updated on the progress regarding this.
We simply can’t allow Conservative councils to continue to sell off our historical assets because of their Conservative government colleagues’ continued campaign of cuts to local authority budgets.
Keep in touch
If you would like to stay updated and get involved in the community-led Wensum Lodge campaign then please contact friendsofwensumlodge@gmail.com
If you are supportive of the work that Green councillors do in their communities then please consider joining the local and national party. We rely on volunteers to help achieve the positive outcomes to the work we do in our communities, and we are always looking for new people to be the Green councillors of tomorrow. If you would like to find out more about the work of Norwich Green Party and you would like to get more involved then please let us know here: Volunteer to Help Continue the Green Success in Norwich! (actionnetwork.org)
