Pulling Up The Bridge
HUGH SULLIVAN
The Parchment Trust has provided services in the community for disabled adults of Hastings for the past 30 years. As well as running the very productive horticultural nursery, Friary Gardeners (at Ore Place off the Ridge), and providing a daycare co-operative at Theaklen Drive in St Leonards, it has pursued for a period of eight years an ambitious programme for a third venue: taking over and renovating The Bridge Community Centre in Priory Road on West Hill to create a supported environment for work and social opportunity.
Due to unspecified complications “beyond our control”, it took the Trust nearly seven years of complex negotiation with East Sussex County Council in order to secure full ownership of the site, finally achieved in March 2024. That’s at least how the Parchment Trust Team have described the process. Local residents who had previously enjoyed access to The Bridge as a community cafe and hub for diverse activities and gatherings have been less impressed, complaining that it has been kept closed, moribund and decaying throughout this period.
Be that as it may, the Trust made a successful bid last year for a grant on the Skills Capital Fund backed by the then Department of Levelling Up (now reverted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) to develop a reception area, ‘skills suite” and meetings room. The amount allocated has not been publicly disclosed but it was one of 20 successful bids to share a £1million fund available in Hastings and Rother.
The Trust Team say that they also had to tackle a large-scale moth infestation, renew the fire equipment and intruder alarms, and undertake other “essential works”.
NO RE-OPENING
Most of this works programme has now been carried out. But in the same week as Hastings Commons Youth made their plea for fresh revenue funding to justify previous government-funded capital spending, the Trust Team made a more immediate announcement: the funding which it has received over the last year has proved insufficient to re-open the venue – and it won’t.
The blame is put squarely on the Labour government’s increase of employers’ National Insurance contributions and of minimum wage levels along with its failure to offer any sort of relief to charities and other state-funded Adult Social Care providers.
“We were almost at the point where we could plan the final works and open the top floor, when we heard the news of the increased duties on employers for National Insurance and minimum wage. We were hopeful that central government would step in with some sort of relief but, by 1 April this year, it was clear that no such support would be forthcoming.
“As one of Hastings’ largest employers [theTrust employs around 130 staff and volunteers working across all services], the impact of the National Insurance increase is considerable. As a direct result, Trustees have concluded that we have to let The Bridge go; the additional cost of running a third site is now too great.
“This was an extremely difficult decision after years of hard work and investment, but essential in order to keep our core charitable services safe.”
The Trust Team say they are now “exploring options” for finding a new owner for The Bridge, ideally an organisation “which shares our values and purpose of supporting better lives”. They thank everyone who has helped with The Bridge “and been so patient while we’ve worked on it”.
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