Topic ID 1311
The last time I was in the Corn Exchange I could barely see the carpet for chewing gum and the atmosphere was cold, dark and unwelcoming. It has poor access, the lift hardly works leading to even less disabled access; it leaks from above and below and even by conservative standards would need almost half a million hard earned pounds of local rate payers money to bring it back up to modern day standards. Payment would come from Hertford Town council as managing agents which would most probably mean a huge increase in the rate precept. Spend it on a skateboard park instead. Ho ho!! Who wants a state of the art skatboard park when Sloop Construction could do the job with a JCB over the weekend for the cost of a pie and a pint. Do away with the Corn Exchnage!! Echoes of Joni Mitchell and Big Yellow Taxi you will say! It has a lovely frontage like a few women I have known but beneath that, you would not want to walk down a dark alley with it. People don't book it - they are not daft. Staff at the Castle spent their own time on a couple of weekends canvassing the youth of Hertford on what they wanted from the place. No one wanted to talk. Like so many buildings in Hertford and all over the country it has been left to rot; no one wants to invest, no one wants to use it and then as soon as the wisest decision is taken to get rid of a non performing asset everyone starts peeling onions. Well, apart from the Art Society who have been keeping the place going for years. Hertford is a small town and Castle Hall has had to be all things to every man. Now wouldn't it be nice if Mr JDW was to rebuild the old Union bar into a leisure hall more in tune with modern day aspirations than let it become just another old decrepit shell for rats and squatters tea parties. I have no idea either what is going to happen to the Library once Macs redevelop Dolphin Yard. Perhaps I should approach the Heritage Lottery Fund. Answers on a postcard please, one side only.