By Julie Waters
THE decision to remove a Holywood community hall from public use following a behind closed doors council meeting, has been strongly criticised by a local councillor.
Green Party councillor Lauren Kendall hit out at the move to ‘sacrifice’ the Queen’s Hall, beside the town’s leisure complex, and earmark it as the preferred site for the proposed Holywood Screen Industries Innovation Hub.
It is understood the Innovation Hub will provide a community- orientated workspace for the growing local creative sector, specifically those involved in film and television production and digital technologies.
The decision has also been questioned by Alliance with the party’s council leader, alderman Martin McRandal and Mayor Gillian McCollum asking for a review of community space in the town.
Ms Kendall said the decision was made in a ‘confidential session’ held in January earlier this year and ‘without transparent community consent’.
“This decision has the potential to permanently remove one of Holywood’s most important and valued community assets from public use, despite public calls for Queen’s Hall to be regenerated.
“For years, there has been widespread community support for restoring the Queen’s Hall so it can once again serve as a venue for larger events, performances, community and cultural activity. The building has been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair, going to wrack and ruin.”
However, Ms Kendall said the hall was now a ‘convenient, prime target for development as the costs of repair have grown to be significant’.
She said earmarking Queen’s Hall as the potential site for the Innovation Hub was a ‘convenient get-out for the council’ and raised concerns ‘that private economic interests are being prioritised over the long-term needs of the community – the ratepayers’.
“It was a decision I could not support,” she said.
Ms Kendall said that Alliance Party alderman Martin McRandal and councillor Gillian McCollum had recently brought forward a notice of motion that acknowledged the new innovation hub had ‘the potential to remove an important community asset from Holywood’.
The motion further asks council officers to ‘assess the need for community space in Holywood, with a report assessing need to be brought back to the relevant committee’.
However Ms Kendall said: “While assessing need is welcome in principle, bringing forward such a process, only after the preferred development site has been agreed, appears to be an effort to retrospectively justify the potential disposal or repurposing of this valued community asset.”
The Green Party councillor said many elected representatives had previously assured residents of their support for the restoration of Queen’s Hall. However, councillors had now proposed the building be removed from public use, without transparent community consent.
“The Innovation Hub is welcome, but the consideration of the Queen’s Hall as the site for the hub ignores the social, cultural, and civic value that Queen’s Hall could provide to Holywood,” said Ms Kendall.
“A functioning large- scale community and events space could support local businesses, attract visitors and contribute significantly to Holywood’s cultural economy, but this has never been adequately assessed or presented by the council.”
Councillor Kendall added: “The people of Holywood, and the rest of the borough, deserve honesty, transparency and genuine public engagement in decision-making.
“Community spaces such as Queen’s Hall should not be sacrificed without a full, open, and public debate about its future, one that considers community need, cultural value, and long-term social benefit alongside economic considerations.”
