Town Council Drops Stag Legal Challenge as £650,000 Freehold Purchase Is Recommended

Sevenoaks Town Council has stepped back from a threatened legal challenge over the future of The Stag, and is now being asked to buy the arts centre's freehold outright for £650,000 - a move that could draw a line under a dispute between the town's two councils that has run since April.

Sevenoaks District Council said on 1 September that it had "noted" the Town Council's latest position, set out in the agenda for the Town Council's Finance and Delivery Committee that evening. According to the District Council, the agenda confirms the Town Council is no longer pursuing its previously stated intention to challenge the District Council's Cabinet decision through Judicial Review, and includes a recommendation to purchase the freehold of The Stag for £650,000 - the independently assessed Existing Use Value the District Council had put forward.

That £650,000 figure has been the sticking point throughout. When the District Council's Cabinet considered the Town Council's Community Asset Transfer application on 16 June, it approved three options and no others: a freehold transfer to the Town Council at the £650,000 Existing Use Value; a new 30-year lease at a peppercorn rent, with the District Council keeping the freehold; or, if no agreement could be reached, the transfer of The Stag to whichever authority succeeds the District Council under local government reorganisation in 2028. The Town Council had argued the building should pass to it at nominal cost, reflecting its community and cultural value rather than its value as property.

Relations between the two authorities had cooled over the summer. Officers from both sides had been due to meet in late July to discuss the approved options, but the District Council said those talks did not go ahead after it was formally notified of the Town Council's intention to seek a Judicial Review - its legal advice being that it should not hold parallel discussions on a matter that might end up in court. The District Council also turned down a suggestion of mediation, saying that as a public authority it could only act on decisions formally taken through its own governance processes, and could not use mediation to reopen options its Cabinet had not approved.

Cllr Kevin Maskell, Leader of Sevenoaks District Council, said the Town Council "has indicated it will not be pursuing Judicial Review proceedings in relation to Cabinet's decision", and that "attention can now return to securing certainty over the future of The Stag". He said the council's position remained unchanged, and that a transfer at Existing Use Value or a long lease represented "the appropriate balance between supporting local stewardship and protecting public assets".

The Stag operates as a theatre, cinema and community arts venue, and is currently run by the Town Council under a 25-year lease with around nine years left to run. Its long-term future has been debated since April, when concern that the District Council might have to weigh the building's market value - together with reports of interest from a commercial operator - prompted a residents' petition calling for it to be handed to the Town Council at no cost. If the Town Council's committee backs the recommendation, a purchase at £650,000 would keep the venue in local ownership ahead of the 2028 reorganisation. Source: Sevenoaks District Council