With the recent very frustrating and deeply concerning announcement of the Girlguiding plans to close five of their activity centres across the UK, including in our area the well known and loved Blackland Farm, south of East Grinstead.
I recently met with Angela Salt, their CEO virtually, to discuss this situation and better understand next steps and options. It’s fair to say all though an amicable discussion, it would be also fair to say it would be hard to argue that I felt more positive afterwards. I am saddened to report.
I continue to receive a large number of concerned and worried email approaches from local Girlguiding members, who I very much thank for taking the time to share their thoughts and experiences of Blackland Farm with me. There has been a consistent and intense theme from these approaches showcasing the utter shock and grave disappointment about this announcement. This particular site was gifted to Girlguiding in the 1930s and is popular with many local and visiting groups of Guides, Scouts, Brownies and Rainbows alongside those undertaking Duke of Edinburgh Awards. I too have spent many a happy hour there with my family on birthday parties, available through the number of the local private organisations, as licensees, based there who are also are very much impacted by these plans for closure.
During my meeting, I was advised that this has, of course, not been an easy decision for the Girlguiding Trustees and whilst some sites are able to 'balance the books' for day-to-day expenditure, all sites require capital investment, estimated at £20 million in total, that is simply not available and exceeds the value of the sites themselves. Their intention is to fully divest the sites and they are hopeful some will be of interest to commercial businesses. At this time they are undertaking a formal consultation with impacted staff and 'what next' must rightly wait until this has occurred, as as well as the site issues there are HR and personal responsibilities to employees and I am extremely mindful of personal impact too.
It was explained there has been a historical decline in membership, which was further significantly impacted during the Pandemic, with the loss of 1/3rd of the membership. I am aware that, for example, an option has been explored in one of the northern sites to understand whether a local annual surcharge, on top of monthly subscription rates, could generate the required capital for that site, however an unsustainable £200 per person per year has been estimated.
Additionally, I was assured they have explored, but unfortunately eliminated for further consideration, the option of retaining some, but not all of the sites. I was advised a key here is that whilst the sites are busy at weekends and popular during warmer school holidays, they are typically virtually empty at all other times and that this is not a model that can be maintained. As a charity organisation they explain they are there to promote the Girlguiding principles, not to commercially maintain activity centres.
I have raised the profile of these concerning local plans with the relevant Minister, Stuart Andrew MP, as the DCMS Minister for Sport, Gambling and Civil Society, under which Youth organisations fall, and will continue to closely monitor this situation as it unfolds over coming months. I am also working with my fellow MPs with sites affected too. Meanwhile, I am visiting the site on Saturday (10th June) when I understand the CEO will be at the ‘Magic and Mayhem’ guiding event and will be hearing further from her and from guides and leaders.
You can also hear my thoughts further on the 28th May BBC Sunday Politics South East recording:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001mgmh/politics-south-east-2805…;
