The council will not list Broadmoor Hospital's disused sports pavilion as a community asset. A charity wanted it as an arts and sports hub for 2,000 a week.
Bracknell Forest Council has refused to list the old sports pavilion at Broadmoor Hospital in Crowthorne as an asset of community value. A Berkshire charity had nominated it, hoping to turn the empty building into a sports, arts and education centre.
The decision was signed on Tuesday 29 September, the last day of the eight-week window the law allows. The officer decision report says the building “cannot be lawfully listed”. The reason is that nobody could show it was ever used by the local community. It served the hospital’s patients behind a secure perimeter.
What the building is
The nomination came from Artemis Studios, a registered charity that teaches performing arts across Berkshire. It was received on 4 August. The charity described the building as a standalone block in a corner of the hospital site with:
- a large sports hall
- a swimming pool
- a gym
- a separate hall where visitors met patients
- an outdoor space that was once a five-a-side pitch
The land belongs to West London NHS Trust, which runs Broadmoor. Its solicitors told the council that the building is “a decommissioned former sports and visits centre”. They said it was never open for public use, public hire or community bookings, and that it is reached by a private road the trust owns.
What the charity wanted to do with it
In its reply to the council’s questions, Artemis Studios set out a plan for a community sports, arts and education centre:
- a sports hall, a theatre or performance space and classrooms
- further education provision during the working week, including moving its sixth form college there to double numbers and run provision for pupils with special educational needs
- community classes in the evenings, at weekends and in the school holidays
- space at affordable rates for other charities, theatre companies, dance and drama schools and gymnastics clubs
The charity estimated the centre could serve “up to approximately 2,000 community participants each week during term time”. It pointed out that the hospital is now surrounded by new housing, with more planned, and said it had the support of the local MP.
Artemis Studios is one of the borough mayor’s chosen charities this year, and it was on the stage programme for the Bracknell communities festival on 26 September.
Why it was refused
An asset of community value has to pass two tests under the Localism Act 2011. A building must be furthering the local community’s wellbeing now, or have done so in the recent past. It must also be realistic that it could do so again.
The council accepted the second part might be met. If the building were freed from the hospital’s access restrictions, the report says, the charity’s plan “could further the social wellbeing or social interest of the local community”.
The first part failed. Everyone the council consulted said the building was for patients, not for Crowthorne:
- Crowthorne Parish Council recommended refusal. It drew “an important distinction between a facility serving the operational needs of a secure NHS institution and a community facility serving the public at large”. It called the charity’s plans “aspirational and speculative”, because there was no agreement with the owner, no funding and no timetable.
- The council’s own contract services team said the leisure facility “was solely for use of the hospital patients” and “never publicly available”.
- A parish councillor told the council the pool was offered to Bracknell Forest Council before the Covid pandemic. The offer was not taken up and the pool was then decommissioned.
The report concludes that “the past community use has not been established”, so the second test did not need to be decided.
The building may be demolished anyway
The pavilion sits inside land the council has earmarked for housing. The report says the site has been on the council’s brownfield register since 1 October 2017. It is part of site allocation SA4, which was set aside for up to 270 homes in 2013 and carried into the 2024 Local Plan.
A planning agreement signed on 14 May 2012, when the new hospital was approved, also covers it. The report says the pavilion is one of a group of buildings that must either be kept under an approved refurbishment scheme or be demolished. The trust’s solicitors describe it as “a requirement for its demolition within five years of practical completion of the new hospital”. The council can agree an extension. The report notes that no planning application has been made yet.
What it means for you
Listing would not have handed the building to the charity. Under the right to bid, it would have meant that if the trust tried to sell, local community groups could ask for time to raise money and make an offer. That pause is now off the table for this building.
The pavilion goes on the council’s list of unsuccessful nominations. The statutory review process is open only to an owner or occupier, so the charity has no appeal route of that kind. The report notes that any decision that is wrong in law could be challenged by judicial review.
Anyone who wants to follow what happens to the rest of the old Broadmoor estate can watch for applications on our Bracknell planning news page.
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