Demo planned to 'save' Red Cross building in Croxley Green

Chris Mitchell, who sits on Croxley Green Parish Council, is hoping to drum up support after learning the British Red Cross centre is under threat from redevelopment.

The Red Cross centre has been out of use for around two years and local plan documents released by Three Rivers District Council this month revealed the Barton Way site could be used to build six new homes.

However, Cllr Mitchell says he wants to keep the district council-owned community facility and he and his fellow councillors unanimously agreed at a planning committee meeting on May 18 to start a petition to "save" the centre.

The petition, which also calls for support for the parish council to take over the running of the building, has been signed by more than 400 people.

Cllr Mitchell, who chairs the planning committee at the Independently-run parish council, said: "I want to raise the profile of the building with this event on Saturday because people are really worried. We will have a maximum of 30 people and I have spoken with the police.

"There is a very strong feeling that this building was built for the community and that it should stay that way."

Cllr Mitchell says he still intends to go ahead with the socially distanced demonstration despite learning from the Three Rivers Liberal Democrats that the district council does want to include a community hall with any new plans to create homes.

The British Red Cross Centre building in Croxley Green

On May 18, parish councillors were presented with a document which stated that Croxley Green has a "great lack of buildings with large spaces for community groups to meet", adding any plan to "rid" the community of the "vital" Red Cross centre space is "highly unfair" to residents.

The parish council then went further, publishing a statement on Facebook on May 24, after the idea of a new community hall was raised.

The statement partially read: "Three Rivers District Council have spent two years ignoring the parish council on this issue…..It has taken the huge negative fallout from their recent actions for the council to begin to be open with residents about their plans for the centre."

It went on to say that Croxley Green "deserves better", adding being told a new community hall is being "considered" is "not good enough".

The British Red Cross has just over 40 years left to run on its lease but the site has not been properly used by the charity since 2019. A spokeswoman confirmed the building had become "too large for its needs".

left to right: Croxley Green Lib Dem district councillors Chris Lloyd, Stephanie Singer, and Dominic Sokalski. Photo taken pre-Covid

Croxley Green district councillor Dominic Sokalski says he has been told by council officers that Three Rivers has been in talks with the Red Cross for them to exit the lease, but as a charity, the Red Cross has a legal obligation to obtain maximum value for its assets and therefore is seeking a substantial payment in order to release the lease.

Cllr Sokalski says his council also wants to "avoid a large sum of public money being sunk into a building which would then also need refurbishment at further significant cost".

The Liberal Democrat representative revealed: "The option now under consideration would see the site redeveloped jointly with a housing association to provide a brand new community facility along with affordable homes.

"How the community hall would be managed would be subject for further discussion, but the aim would be for it to be much more widely available and more intensively used by all sections of the local community than the Red Cross building has been for many years. The council is committed to retaining a community use here. 

"Croxley’s district councillors will keep listening to residents, and push to agree a way forwards that retains community use on the site while also ensuring residents get value for money."