FACT admits defeat over Bothy dispute

9:58am Friday 29th February 2008

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The Finchley Arts Centre Trust (FACT) will shut down after conceding defeat in a four-year battle over The Bothy.

The decision was finally made more than a year after the Avenue House Estate Trust (AHET) evicted FACT, its tenants, from The Bothy building in its grounds, claiming it had broken its contract to complete renovations by November 2004.

However, FACT claims the eviction, on January 19, 2007, was illegal because it had written agreements with AHET that the lease would be extended until November 2008.

FACT was set up ten years ago, when a group of residents wanted to provide a place for arts workshops, performances and exhibitions. Since then, the trust has put on shows ranging from Ali Baba to The Merchant of Venice, and developed a reputation for its emphasis on young people's work and entertainment.

The Bothy was a ruin when FACT was first granted a six-year lease, in 1998, and the trust spent the next six years raising £600,000 to renovate the building. However, when the work ran severely over-schedule, AHET only agreed to extend the lease on various provisions that FACT found unworkable, such as FACT gaining formal consent from AHET before hosting any programme or event.

FACT continued to run events from the unfinished building while the lease dispute continued, prompting its eventual eviction when AHET accused them of putting people's lives at risk.

Mike Walsh, FACT chairman, said the organisation had been forced to disband because, a year after its eviction, there still seemed "no realistic prospect of reaching any agreement" with AHET.

He said: "We have tried very hard over the past 12 months to persuade the board of AHET either to meet with us, or to take part in independent mediation, but all attempts to bring about a fair and creative solution have met with complete intransigence.

"In view of this, and the level of hostility exhibited by AHET, we can see no viable future for FACT in The Bothy as long as the current AHET board is in place. We have no plans. Our future was completely tied up with The Bothy."

Janet Durrant, trustee estate manager of Avenue House, denied being hostile towards FACT and said that the unfinished state of the building had prompted the eviction notice. She cited exposed wires, wobbly stairs and a lack of proper lighting among a number of serious safety hazards.

She said: "There were a whole range of health and safety issues. FACT was allowing the public, specifically children, to use the site. Putting anyone in a building that is effectively a building site makes your insurance null and void."

FACT claims it provided staff to look after the health and safety of all visitors and that AHET's argument was merely a ploy to get rid of them. Mr Walsh said when the dispute kicked off, FACT was in negotiation with the Hampstead School of Art to raise the money necessary to complete the work. However, the school needed agreement between the two trusts before its plan went further.

Mr Walsh said: "Since terminating the lease, AHET has sought to exploit the incomplete nature and criticisms of the work to justify its actions. FACT would of course be happy to complete the building works and undertake the corrections of any defects was it continuing to occupy and use The Bothy."

• Read councillor Monroe Palmer's blog about The Bothy at times-series.co.uk/blogs/monroe