The Outdoor Centre at Mepal, which Conservative councillors now want to turn into a crematorium, has lain disused and neglected for several years now. What happened to lead to this, and why?

Background

Mepal Outdoor Centre, a site owned by East Cambridgeshire District Council, operated under a trust structure from the 1980s to 2016, catering for community users and school groups. In December 2016, an arson attack at the site led the trustees to the conclusion they could no longer manage the facility, and they handed back the keys to the Council.

The Council said that the Centre was ‘very tired, but it is believed that a viable business can be developed with appropriate investment and a robust business model’.

Under offer

So in summer 2017, a working party of three councillors—including me—was set up to consider applications to take on the site for community and leisure use. We took a very broad approach, inviting proposals which involved leasing the site from the council as well as outright purchase options. When the first round of advertising didn’t result in a sufficient variety of applications, we made the decision to advertise again.

We shortlisted the applications down to three, all very different. We interviewed the shortlisted applicants in 2018, and settled (unanimously) on one of them. The Full Council agreed to go ahead with this applicant subject to a satisfactory conclusion of negotiations.

Time went on, the deal wasn’t sealed, and it became increasingly clear that it wasn’t going to be. We were not (and still are not) allowed to reveal the name of the successful bidder. And since the failure of those negotiations with the applicant we chose in 2018, nothing happened. Or so we thought.

Secret plans

Liberal Democrat councillors continued to ask for updates from the Council, to find out what the ruling Conservative Group’s plan was. Most recently, we asked the question at the Council’s Finance & Assets Committee meeting on 23 June, and were told that ‘it hadn’t been a priority’.

What we didn’t know when we were given that answer was that it simply wasn’t true. For at least six months work had been going on secretly to bring plans together to put a crematorium on the site.

On 14 July, we received a notice that there would be a special meeting of the Council on 31 July, behind closed doors. On 15 July, we wrote to the Chief Executive of the Council asking for as much information as possible to be discussed in public, holding back only the material that was strictly necessary to be confidential. Our request was refused.

Papers arrive

On Saturday 25 July the papers arrived for the confidential meeting, with all the preparatory work laid out to turn the site into a crematorium. We were still not allowed to talk about any of it, and on Tuesday 28 July Cllr Mark Inskip and I, as councillors for the area in which the Mepal Outdoor Centre is located, issued a public statement.

We said how angry and frustrated we were that we were unable to be open and transparent with our residents about what was being done, as we believed we should, because of the Council’s unreasonable demand for silence.

That evening the local press published the news that Mepal Outdoor Centre would become a crematorium.

The decision is made

The Council met as planned on Friday 31 July, and Cllr Mark Inskip has given an account of our battle to get the Council to act openly and be honest with the public about what was happening. We were defeated by sheer weight of numbers, with Conservative councillors forcing the plan through.

There will now be a planning application, which will be heard in public. But it will be decided by those councillors who so enthusiastically gave their support for the crematorium proposal. There will be a meeting of the Council’s Finance & Assets Committee—but only after a lot more money has been spent on developing the scheme further, and again we don’t know whether the Committee will meet in public or not.

Questions remain

So why was no attempt made to reopen bidding after the successful offer in 2018 collapsed? Why did the Council not think more radically—perhaps rather than selling or leasing the site to a single outfit, turn it into more of an outdoor leisure village, with voluntary and commercial organisations all doing their thing on parts of the site?

And why a crematorium? The Council’s current Local Plan doesn’t say there is a need for one. The replacement Local Plan that should have been adopted before Conservative councillors withdrew it in February 2019 doesn’t mention it either. Nor does the Council’s Corporate Plan 2020-2023 which councillors approved only two weeks ago. Nor does the previous version agreed last year.

There is no evidence given in any of the Council’s strategic documents that East Cambridgeshire actually needs a new crematorium. Still less is there any evidence that the Mepal site, just thirteen minutes from a rival crematorium, is the best place for it even if the need were proven.

And the financial and other information behind this decision is still secret.

If, like us, you think this decision is wrong, please sign the petition at https://www.ecld.org.uk/moc – thank you!