The Agenda for the next Public Meeting of Ramsey Town Commissioners to be held on the 15th March can now be viewed online via this link - http://ramsey.gov.im/Upload/Files/Public%20Agenda%20March%202017.pdf
On the Agenda this month is a report from the Ramsey Courthouse Sub-Committee, with a recommendation to the full Board that:
Ramsey Town Commission make a formal offer to purchase the Ramsey Courthouse and Grounds in the sum of ?397,800.00 consideration to be in the form of a 26 year rent free period for the leasehold occupation and use of the police office in Ramsey Town Hall.
Also being published today is the outcome of the recent consultation held by the Ramsey Town Commissioners:
A total of 936 responses were received. Not all of these gave answers to all of the questions. There were 14 paper responses.
In summary:
75 % felt that RTC should seek to retain the building in public ownership, with 11.75% saying no to this and 13.25% not sure.
75% felt that the building should NOT be sold to the private sector, with 12.93% saying that it should and 12.07% not sure.
71.97% were in favour of it being acquired by RTC and leased out (similar to the arrangement with the old swimming pool), 10.76% were against this and 17.28% not sure.
72.79% were in favour of a mixed commercial/community use. 9.41% were against this and 17.80% not sure.
In terms of financing, 53.29% were in favour of this being met by the rate payers, 22.24% against and 24.47% not sure.
In terms of usage:
The weighted average for each of the commercial types in the survey - with the lowest number being the more popular option:
Restaurant – 2.7
Retail – 2.85
Coffee Shop – Artisan – 3.31
Night Club – 3.34
Cafe – 3.4
Public House – 3.43
Office - 3.81
Coffee Shop – branded – 4.08
Off Licence – 4.22
The weighted average for the possible “community” uses - with the lowest number being the more popular option:
Arts Centre – 1.68
Community Hall – 2.06
Tourist Information/Visitor Centre – 2.47
Charity Drop In Centre – 3.28
The predominant suggestion from the “free form” comment boxes was for a Peel Centenary Centre/Port Erin Arts Centre type facility.
72.86% of the respondents were Ramsey residents, 27.14% not.
In respect of the consultation, Chairman of Ramsey Town Commissioners, Andrew Cowie J.P. commented:
“Ramsey Commissioners are pleased to release the results of our survey into the future use of the Court House. It is absolutely clear that there is tremendous support for retaining this historic building in the safe hands of the Commission. I can assure the citizens of Ramsey that all the Commissioners strongly support this strategy and we will do everything that we can to ensure this building remains in public ownership and put to use to benefit the community. We would like to thank the 936 people who took the time to complete the survey and help guide our decisions.”
