Malcolm Sargent House- Update

Hi, Just to give everybody who took the time to sign the petition an update on what has been happening. Brief closure history  - After the 'consultation period' declared by CLIC Sargent on Monday 6th June 2016, The Chief Executive Officer - Kate Lee formally announced on Wednesday 27th July 2016 that they were closing the house, the holiday services, making staff redundant and would be taking actions to selling the property. In light of these developments, The Committee (also named M7) who were campaigning to #SAVEMSH has now changed the campaign strategy to #BUYMSH.  We have set up a new charity named 'Ayrshire Holiday Dreams Foundation (MSH).' We will rename the house at a later date. We are still awaiting our charity registration number from OSCR. The Board of Trustees has been set up.  Although the Committee have been working hard and fundraising to secure the deposit for the house, in recent weeks, CLIC Sargent announced that they have a property developer willing to pay them a figure of 1.75 million - it is assumed, as it has not been officially confirmed that they will knock down the house to build retirement flats. M7 had their own valuations carried out and as a charity they were very low, as a house the value was 850k, and as commercial land it was £1 million maximum. That's almost £1 million of a difference between either party valuations. CLIC Sargent want to sell to the highest bidder to get as much as they can to inject back into their charity for children with cancer. M7, the Board of Trustees and the community want to keep this vital service provision open for the same children but can't pay this overvalued price. It's not feasible. We can't use the money donated to us from the community to pay an overvalued figure for a property. The house requires work too, not just renovation work but work to bring the house in line with regulations to today's standards. In order for us to open the new MSH to children and young people with cancer and to those same children with life altering illnesses, we would need to spend a large percentage of monies on these renovations. CLIC aren't willing to come down to our valuations and we cannot, in the interest of the children agree to an overinflated figure of 1.75 million. But we know that this service provision is totally vital - it's a holiday respite facility that needs to be kept in Ayrshire. Something we can't let go! And for this reason we have decided to build anew one - a 21st century MSH incorporating all the love, passion, care and atmosphere that the original house offered. We understand people will be upset - we have spoken to many families who have visited MSH over the years, since our announcement and they understand and want to support this new facility. We are heartbroken about the house and believe us we did try every eventuality. Our new plans are very exciting and we hope that the community will continue their support and follow us on this journey in building a 21st century MSH for the children and young people with cancer and life altering illnesses in the UK. We continue our journey and have some major local fundraising events planned, which all money raised will go straight to our #BUYMSH Appeal. We are returning the Firework Display to Ayr Racecourse on Thursday 3rd November. Ayr Central Shopping Centre has also kindly offered that all proceeds raised from their Santa's Grotto this Christmas come directly to our cause. The support we have received so far has been incredible and we are very grateful and even more driven now to make this project a huge success for our community. Please find future updates on our Facebook page BUYMSH and if you would like to donate to our appeal please find us at www.justgiving.com/buy-msh. Kind regards, Siobhian Brown siobhian71@gmail.com