Friends of Holt Hall

Recent coverage about Norfolk County Council’s “disposal of Holt Hall” in the local media has shocked and saddened us all.  By way of reminder, the key headlines are that:

1. NCC have accepted a proposal by an unnamed, mystery buyer for their personal use as a private home for a sum substantially above the next offer in the final round of bidding. It has been suggested to us that much restoration money will be available for the local community for an initial expensive restoration but it is not clear if the site will be also  be developed.
2. This offer includes a £1m “donation” for NCC to use for the benefit of disadvantaged Norfolk Children, but there is no information on how or on what or in what timeframe this would be used.
3. The council has not published the full lifetime evaluation of the proposals it received, assessed against their stated criteria of public benefit, sustainability and price. This likely to be in excess of any one off restoration spend.
4. NCC state that best value rules mean they have to accept this offer and “donation” as it is £2m+ more than the next bid.  They have expressed no interest in the alternative option of seeking Secretary of State permission to accept an alternative offer on the basis of lifetime, sustainable public benefit in environmental and other outdoor learning for Norfolk Children.
5. A proposal to review the decision in the Council’s Scrutiny Committee has been blocked by the council official who is known as the “Monitoring Officer”.  

On March 30th, one of the Friends of Holt Hall submitted a full and detailed Freedom of Information Enquiry to the Council about the deal including the identity of the mystery buyer, details of evaluations, the budget to which the “donation” will be allocated, and correspondence about the various proposals received since July 2021 as well as the sources of the purchaser’s funds.  

Whilst this information is of great public interest, we have not yet heard from the Council on this request. There will no doubt be reluctance to release information at the first attempt.  We will keep our supporters informed.

Of course this mystery private deal may unravel: there has been no recent information about the contractual stages.   FOHH will continue to track developments.  

We are keen to acknowledge the tremendous public support in words and in cash in our attempt to secure a future for Holt Hall.  In the event, as appears likely, that this private deal is finalised, FOHH is considering options to help Norfolk schools and their students get some benefits of environmental outdoor learning from the resources we have.  

If you would like to give us your views then please send us a message on our contact form or simply email fohhinfo@gmail.com

Norfolk County Council have decided to continue with the decision to place the Holt Hall for sale on the open market. Until March 2020 this operated as a much loved and respected Environmental Outdoor Learning Centre.  

Tom Green, Chair of Trustees, said, “Friends of Holt Hall remain optimistic that there is still the opportunity for Environmental and Outdoor Learning (EOL) to continue at Holt Hall for the children of the county and wider community benefit, which FOHH will continue to keep at the forefront of the NCC agenda”.

Thanks to great support across the county, we have been able to take proper advice and, with great creative input from Richard Draper, the founder and former CEO of The Benjamin Foundation, and with a partner, Dr Sanjay Kaushal, a former GP who runs the successful Castlemeadow group of retirement care homes, we developed an imaginative and compelling vision. Nic Hopkins, Trustee and Treasurer, said, “This vision is for a future community-based enterprise at Holt Hall, focused on environmental outdoor learning and supported by a pragmatic and detailed set of business plans.”

Dr Sanjay Kaushal, of Castlemeadow Group and key partner in this vision, said, “Holt Hall should be developed for the children of Norfolk because of its history and potential for transforming young people’s lives.  If we are successful in now acquiring the Hall and grounds and launching our new community enterprise, we shall establish a robust and viable business offering residential and day visits to Holt Hall for Environmental and Outdoor Learning and Climate Change Studies. Our plan makes these sustainable through a diversified range of complementary and sympathetic services.  It will take time to build but our determination is there, step by step.”

Towards the end of the Asset of Community value moratorium period, triggered by the Norfolk CC giving notice of disposal in January 2021, FOHH submitted formal proposals. This followed meetings with officers and Cabinet Members last May to July. We were advised that these proposals would be subject to detailed review and subsequent discussions to provide further clarification and due diligence points.  Of course, we accept there was no obligation for NCC to accept our proposals.

We received recently the frustrating news that despite the acknowledged strength and excellent quality of our proposals, NCC has now announced that it decided that our proposals should be tested against other expressions of interest in Holt Hall which claim also to deliver sustainable community benefits such as education, environmental outdoor learning and public access.  Despite not having the detail behind this decision explained to us, we are assured our proposals have in no way been rejected and we have been encouraged to add to our proposal. 

The public should take confidence from the fact that FOHH is determined and ready to work further with its partner on a proposal for a new community enterprise to acquire and operate Holt Hall delivering Environmental Outdoor Learning and Climate Change Studies within a new sustainable business model.  We do so because we believe it is right and we have a great chance of success. We have much work to do to deliver our indicative bid and proposal by the deadline of 1st December.

Richard Draper, who has provided such expertise on starting up new community ventures, said, “We are positioned as serious, professional and realistic bidders, based on the credible and high quality work we have already done.  We are now studying the materials now released from Norfolk CC’s marketing agents, with the determination we will be the successful bidders.”

We shall maintain updates on our website and social media channels and we hope these will answer questions in the public interest in so far as FOHH is able to do. contact us through fohhinfo@gmail.com.

Trustees: Tom Green, Nic Hopkins, Iona Chamberlain, Phil Bacon, Kate Jewell.

Thanks to the great engagement of Dr Sanjay Kaushal and Richard Draper.

The final decision by NCC to sell Holt Hall presented the Friends of Holt Hall with both an opportunity and a substantial challenge. Your support has helped to ease the pain for the staff, for whom the Centre was much more than just a job. Our passion for supporting environmental and outdoor learning for Norfolk’s children remains strong, again boosted by the financial and supportive generosity of very many people. I hope that the attached newsletter, will give you a flavour of where we are. Towards the end of over a year of intense consultation, research and conversations with possible partners, the next few weeks will be critical as the FOHH Trustees use what leverage we have to reiterate the case to NCC to adopt a Holt Hall solution which enables both a satisfactory sale but also leads to better meeting such challenges as children’s well-being, nature awareness and a better understanding of climate change.

Very best wishes

Tom

Chairman Friends of Holt Hall

The Friends of Holt Hall want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all who supported our Crowdfunder project. At it’s close we had raised £6,268 in donations plus gift aid.

If you didn’t have chance to donate to the project you can still give please go to our giving page. All donations are supporting us to work towards our aim of securing outdoor learning at Holt Hall. We are currently working hard to ensure your donations are used in the most effective manner and will be updating you of our progress in due course.

At the time of filming we were at 95% with our Crowdfunder we have a new ambitious target and with your help we will be able to raise it. Holt hall has had a massive impact on children throughout the 70 years it has provided education Patrick is one of those children.

Nick Acheson, shares a message with you about the importance of outdoor learning for children, and how you can help us (Friends of Holt Hall) with securing a future for outdoor learning at Holt Hall. Please watch and consider how you can support us with this project.

We need funds to make sure we can do our planning properly, to sound professional standards and independently of other interests.

Our dedicated FoHH trustees and volunteers are by definition unpaid, and there is only so much we can do on this basis. We are proud of how far we have come.

To have the best chance of success we are drawing on the advice of successful community projects elsewhere but we need dedicated and paid help to develop robust plans, proposals to Norfolk County Council and a cover a range of fees.

In the longer term we need funding to adapt our mission to help children and young people access outstanding outdoor, environmental and green revolution experiences in Norfolk and our region.

With your help we can take this to the next stage!

Donations will enable us to develop our plans so we can make credible and attractive proposals to Norfolk County Council.  We know we shall be competing with others who may have ambitions that are much less focused on the community and the widest accessibility.  But the other people in the race don’t have the wonderful support and goodwill that we do. So please donate and please spread the word.