Campaigners call Sheffield Council to save Vestry Hall now only known as ‘feeding place for pigeons’

Some ACORN Burngreave members attended the council’s strategy and resources policy committee meeting yesterday (March 12) to ask a couple of questions about Vestry Hall in Burngreave.

The campaigners have pressed the council to work with them so they can save the building and give it back to the community.

During public questions, they told Cllr Tom Hunt, the leader of the council, that they have been running a “Take Back Vestry Hall” campaign since September and they were “unhappy” that the building was still “massively underused”.

One campaigner said the two main reasons for that were the “high prices for room booking and the lack of community outreach or involvement to ensure it is filled”.

She said: “We believe Vestry Hall could and should be a community hub for Burngreave instead of a near empty husk which is at the moment best known in the area as a feeding place for pigeons.”

She asked Cllr Hunt to meet with them to discuss the future of the building.

Other questionnaires also raised the issue of Burngreave – the “second most deprived ward in Sheffield” – not having a proper community hub (or a library) and called the council leader to start a dialogue with local residents and campaigners about Vestry Hall.

In response, Cllr Hunt said the council was putting in place a new community buildings policy so there is an “open, fair, transparent and consistent process” to enable the management of community buildings.

He added the current fees and charges at Vestry Hall have been in place for quite some time – he also added that Burngreave had a volunteer-run library at Sobry House on Spital Hill.

Cllr Hunt said council members and officers had a “fiduciary duty” to ensure council properties are managed financially effectively.

In the future, “a standard pricing methodology” will be put in place across council buildings.

Cllr Hunt said he was “always happy to meet” with campaigners or residents.

Earlier this year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported that campaigners said residents of the Burngreave ward had nowhere to go while Vestry Hall was “so underused”.

Mishanth Feinstein, a local organiser at community union ACORN, then told the LDRS that they were campaigning for Vestry Hall to be free for community groups as it’s just “too expensive” which is the main reason it’s not being booked up usually.

He said: “If you look into booking it for a couple of hours, it could cost you a hundred pounds. It’s unaffordable for local groups.

“We also want the community to run it.”

Vestry Hall, a grade-II listed building of Jacobean architecture, was built in 1846 to accommodate the Brightside Bierlow Vestry which was the organisation responsible for administering the Poor Law in this part of Sheffield, the Sheffield Museum website states.

After being used for offices and meeting spaces for public officials, Vestry Hall became a feeding station and a gas mask distribution centre during the Second World War.

After the war, it became a community hub, and while it closed its doors for a couple of years in 1997 – due to structural problems and a leaking roof – Vestry Hall is open now.