The Liberty Ballroom

Julian May, spokesman for Greenham Common Trust, said:

“No final decision has been made regarding the future of the Liberty Ballroom and the Trust will be consulting with interested groups who use the facility to see if there is another operator who could run it on a sustainable basis, certainly for the short term.

If we cannot find a viable solution for the Liberty Ballroom we will look to help those groups affected in securing alternative venues or through appropriate funding as we do for many others in the community.

We understand that many residents, and particularly the dancing community in Newbury and surrounding areas, feel deeply attached to the building.

However, to maintain and repair the venue to a suitable state will require a considerable level of investment. A conservative estimate to repair the ballroom roof and building could be approaching £500,000 – £750,000, along with significant annual maintenance costs.

The choices we make are hard, but the revenues of the Trust must be carefully managed. It would be wrong of us to pour money into one amenity that needs a great deal of work and is sadly beyond its economic life, when that same amount could be used to help many other local charitable causes who are feeling the pressure in the current climate.

We have consulted with the current operator over several months and although they have tried hard they have been unable to create a sustainable business and the decision to serve notice is not sudden.
 
Since the Trust was created it has given over £32m in grants and charitable support to help communities in West Berkshire and north Hampshire. These are generated through rental income from our assets such as Greenham Business Park.
 
If we continued to subsidise commercial tenants we could put at risk the significant funding we are able to give to crucial projects such as the new dialysis and cancer units at West Berkshire Community Hospital, the dozens of community buildings which have received over £2.1 million so far or the hundreds of local organisations we support in with grant aid every year.”