Epsom residents demanded the launch of an urgent campaign to find a community purpose for the town’s Grade-II listed Horton Chapel.
The Labour group on Epsom and Ewell Borough Council called a meeting at Longmead Community Centre on Sunday, October 18, to discuss the future of the chapel, pictured below.
Epsom’s Residents' Association (RA) council announced on Facebook on Thursday, October 1 that it is planning to sell off the Grade II-listed Horton Chapel if an alternative use is not found for it.
Ownership of the chapel in Haven Way was transferred to Epsom and Ewell Borough Council in 2004 on the condition that it was used as a community space.
Proposed schemes, such as the chapel acting as a treatment centre and offices for Central Surrey Health and as a GP practice, had come to nothing after drawings and costings had been prepared.
But two calls from interested parties in the last week have re-energised the search for a community use for the chapel.
Specific details were not given, but it was suggested that the chapel might be converted into a combined church and community centre - similar to the Kings Centre now running successfully at a former RAF site in Chessington.
Labour councillor Kate Chinn of court ward was pleased with how the meeting went and believes the combined model could work well.
She said: "I think it is quite a good model.
"We have had two calls in the last week from people interested in taking on at least part of the chapel.
"We are going to take it to the council so we do have a really last push. It would then be up to the council taking due diligence.
"We are really keen for the chapel to be brought back into the community."
Epsom Council now holds trust funds totalling £1.8 million which can be spent on maintenance and projects complying with building use covenants.
Building running costs are estimated at £100,000 a year.
Residents’ Association Councillor Clive Woodbridge said he would be willing to work with Labour to find a use for the chapel, but advised that any new use for the chapel would need to be economically viable.
He said: "The council’s concern is that it would have to be viable and sustainable and it would have to generate enough income to survive.
"I do think that there is somewhere a viable option for a community use that will not be an ongoing drain on community resources, but it has been in council control for about 12 years now and but we cannot go round in circles forever.
"Whether it will have a viable future, only time will tell."
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