Residents in Ealing have launched a final fundraising push to pay the cost of legal action they are taking to stop Ealing Council from selling off the publicly-owned Victoria Hall as part of Ealing Town Hall.
They are looking to raise £60,000 and have already reached the halfway point.
A tribunal hearing will take place next week from 20 February – 22 February 2023, nearly two years after an appeal was lodged by Will French and Tony Miller representing the Friends of the Victoria Hall to challenge the Charity Commission over its support for Ealing Council’s attempts to sell off the Victoria Hall as part of Ealing Town Hall.
In July 2016 Ealing Council entered into an agreement with Mastcraft to sell off the Town Hall on a 250-year lease to turn it into a luxury hotel. This is despite that over 20% of Ealing Town Hall consists of the Victoria Hall, built by public subscription and since 1893 the property of a charitable trust set up to run the venue for the benefit of the local community that had paid for it.
Campaigners highlight that Victoria Hall is the only large venue in the Borough that’s easily accessible from Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale, or Southall. The 2016 deal, they say, would mean it would become part of a luxury hotel, with only limited and scarcely affordable access available to local people.
In 2019, Mastcraft submitted its application for planning permission.
In March 2021 despite fierce local opposition the Charity Commission agreed to let Ealing Council take over the property of the charitable trust.
Will said: “The Hall was a gift to us from the Town’s first residents. In patriotic mood like the one that swept the country last year on the death of our Queen, they dug deep in their pockets to build a permanent Memorial to Queen Victoria, one that future citizens could enjoy for years to come. We need the Hall now as much as we ever did. Don’t let them sell off Ealing’s greatest asset. Spare us what you can and help us keep the Victoria Hall for everyone in Ealing.”
Tony added: “Our straightforward factual case against the scheme to sell the Victoria Hall, property of a charitable trust, is that the Council has not properly managed the Hall and there should now be a different, independent trustee. But in the two years since we launched our appeal the Council has spent a considerable amount of the trust’s money on building a complex legal defence.
“That’s why we recently have had to brief a barrister to represent us at the Tribunal so that the community gets Victoria Hall run as intended by the original donors.”
To donate to the appeal, click here.
