Who saved Ewell Court House?

In January 2005 there were cheers from the public gallery as Epsom & Ewell's ruling RA Party overturned their own decision to dispose of Ewell Court House (ECH).

Back in February 2004 the borough council had agreed to sell the main building for refurbishing as 15 flats - the proposal went through the Strategy and Resources (S & R) Committee, chaired by Ewell Court RA councillor Eber Kington, with the public barred from the gallery.

With evident support from Ewell Court RA nominated councillors, and the RA Party's dominating majority on the council, it came as no surprise when the recommendation was agreed, though with feelings of regret and surprise that apparently the residents of Ewell Court no longer wanted to make sufficient use of this historic building to make its upkeep viable.

In June 2004, after the press had reported that ordinary members of the Ewell Court RA had been shocked when they heard about the plans, a Council press release confirmed that meetings were being held between "residents representatives" and ward councillors, using information supplied by council officers. (Apparently the RA ward councillors were no longer recognised as being the residents representatives!)

It seemed that the agreed plans were on hold, even though no delay had officially been agreed. So Lib Dem councillor Colin Taylor asked for clarification at the July meeting of the Council.

He was told by the vice-chairman of S & R Cllr Smitheram that "following the publication of the proposals for ECH" it had become evident that there was support locally for a "community based option" and that the chairman Cllr Kington had told him that he could not support the council's existing policy (the one the chairman had put through) and would work for a different solution. This would come to a future meeting (to be held in public) to be chaired by Cllr Smitheram.

This was such good news that it would have been churlish to ask where and how the proposals had been published (no details were given in the Feb 2004 minutes and the Feb 2004 agenda was still confidential) nor who had ordered the delay, contrary to normal procedures.

ECHO (Ewell Court House Organisation) had meanwhile been formed and presented a petition of 1500 signatures for their community based scheme. Despite this, when the promised meeting was held in January 2005, councillors were recommended to adopt a hybrid scheme for 9 flats and limited community use.

In the event the councillors all voted for the ECHO scheme, an amendment formally proposed by Cllr Kington.

But why did it take 1500 signatures from local residents to make the RA councillors realise they had made a mistake? They always claim to be the voice of local residents, but they consistently get it wrong.

This time they backed down and Cllr Kington proposed the amendment - but it is entirely to the credit of ECHO that Ewell Court House has been saved.