Part of a reasonable minimum definition of a "community asset" is that it should be accessible to all the community, which, in practice, means that it should be possible to get to and from it by public transport. To the great discredit of the local authority (which is about as ridiculously anti-public transport as it is possible to get while remaining broadly legal), the conference centre and attached facilities sit remote and distant from all bus routes, the railway station and Kettering town centre. As a result, the conference centre manages to be the worst of all worlds, that is, not a proper community asset of itself yet, by its existence, undermining the case for building a broadly similar but better-located and better-served facility closer to the middle of town. It is, as a result, almost a perfect White Elephant, and excellent only as a monument to the decades of poor planning, judgement and management that have driven Kettering into the mess that it now is.
Funny how the Tories never have any money for anything good and life enhancing. But always money for fighting wars or giving huge health and PPE contracts to their mates. Strange that.
Part of a reasonable minimum definition of a "community asset" is that it should be accessible to all the community, which, in practice, means that it should be possible to get to and from it by public transport. To the great discredit of the local authority (which is about as ridiculously anti-public transport as it is possible to get while remaining broadly legal), the conference centre and attached facilities sit remote and distant from all bus routes, the railway station and Kettering town centre. As a result, the conference centre manages to be the worst of all worlds, that is, not a proper community asset of itself yet, by its existence, undermining the case for building a broadly similar but better-located and better-served facility closer to the middle of town. It is, as a result, almost a perfect White Elephant, and excellent only as a monument to the decades of poor planning, judgement and management that have driven Kettering into the mess that it now is.
Funny how the Tories never have any money for anything good and life enhancing. But always money for fighting wars or giving huge health and PPE contracts to their mates. Strange that.