PLANS for BCP Council to buy a church hall in Bournemouth town centre to sub-contract as a homeless health hub have been scrapped.

The local authority had worked on proposals to acquire the hall at St Stephen's Church subject to finding an operator to run it.

Funding will now be given to financially support a community interest company (CIC) in its effort to provide a service from the site.

In November, the council told the Daily Echo it could not comment on the church hall purchase but hoped to have "news in the near future".

It has now come to light in a cabinet report that last summer's tender process had been unsuccessful and last month officers decided not to proceed with the acquisition.

The purchase price of the hall had previously been unknown, however, the report confirms it was £440,500 including stamp duty and legal fees.

The council tender ran from May to July and the only bid was from Hope Place CIC – an organisation set up to provide a gateway to a range of homeless health and community services under one roof.

Its directors come from business, charity health and faith-based organisations. The CIC's bid scored 50 per cent in the tender exercise.

BCP Council's chief operations officer Jess Gibbons decided not to award the contract "due to a lack of reassurance that the building refurbishment and ongoing revenue activity could be delivered within the budget or that alternative funding would be secured".

This decision was made on January 23 and published three days later.

The cabinet report says Hope Place CIC began discussions with St Stephen's Hall trustees to secure a full repair and maintenance lease of the building to continue their goal of delivering homeless health support services from this location.

While this approach would see no direct involvement from the council, cabinet members were asked to allocate a £50,000 revenue funding grant and a one off £250,000 in capital funding to support the voluntary sector to provide health support to homeless individuals.

Officers set out three options for how this money could be used:

  • Provide Hope Place CIC with a £50,000 annual revenue grant for five years and a one-off Capital grant of £250,000
  • Open a homelessness grant fund of £50,000 per annum for five years and £250,000 capital
  • Do nothing

The second option was described as providing a "prudent mitigation to the risks associated with grant funding" and it wasthe preferred option to be adopted.

However, cabinet members unanimously voted to take the first option of giving Hope Place CIC a £50,000 annual grant for the five years, along with a one-off £250,000 grant.