Volunteers fear that council intends to tear down historical Beckets Park Pavilion in Northampton

A Beckets Park volunteer group has accused the council of planning to pull down the park’s historic pavilion after years of not following up on their promise of passing ownership to a community group.

The fate of the Beckets Park Pavilion - a wooden structure constructed in the 1920s - has still not been decided by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) since its previous leaseholder, Tony Watts, died suddenly in 2017.

According to volunteer group, Buddies of Beckets (BOB), the council have only recently decided to carry out structural investigations of the 100-year-old building, despite chasing them for years.

Councillor Phil Larratt, cabinet member for environment, transport, highways and waste, said: “Our Assets Team has undertaken a survey of the property which has identified a possible issue of damp to the floor.

“They’re working with Buddies of Becket’s to clear space within the property for further exploratory investigation. Once we have the results of that, we will have a better understanding of what work is required and how long it should take.”

WNC told the Chronicle & Echo they are still working through the process of exploring the lease of the Pavilion and BOB will have the same opportunity as other organisations to bid for control of the site in due course.

BOB treasurer, Rob Smith, said: “We have a sneaky feeling they're going to say it is beyond repair and pull it down.

“We have been chasing them for three years now to do what they said they were going to do to offer it to a community group so, why they say they need to inspect it now we are on their back again, it does not make sense.”

BOB met with the leader of the now dissolved Northampton Borough Council, Jonathan Nunn, in 2020. The volunteer group were assured that a process would be set up for interested community groups to apply to take over the Pavilion.

Three years later, the council is no closer to getting this done as the historic Pavilion continues to deteriorate.

BOB wants to take on the Pavilion or work with another community group taking on the site to transform it into a community hub whether that is in the form of a cafe with public toilets or somewhere to hire out for yoga sessions or parties, pending a public consultation.

Over the years, BOB has been responsible for planting more trees, putting up information boards on the history of the park, litter-picking and hosting health walks. They successfully campaigned to have safety railings erected near the Morrison’s supermarket and replace two park benches.

They won a trophy from the annual Northampton In Bloom awards and they run annual Pumpkin Hunts and Christmas Elf Door Hunts, each attended by around 200 people.

Rob Smith, who has volunteered with BOB for six years, said: “The council has had no useful interaction with us at all and yet they expect to ride off the back of our success.

“They want the community groups and, when they are there, they ignore them and, whenever they respond, it is all smoke and mirrors.”

The loss of Beckets Park Pavilion will mean that BOB will no longer be able to operate.