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Monday night in Wivenhoe and the William Loveless Hall saw a healthy turn out as locals gathered to debate the future of Broad Lane. The premise was how to mobilise the community to transform the football ground. The sub-plot was let’s build a swimming pool in Wivenhoe.

Blimey.

It seems that I have touched down in the Hoe during what is a genuinely incredibly exciting period. The future of Broad Lane is up for grabs. A mysterious and anonymous benefactor is willing to pump cash into the project. To proceed, he needs to see and hear the right reassurances that the entire community is backing the project.

Local resident Tim Patterson hosted the evening, carrying forward the agenda and ideas with tremendous enthusiasm. If this optimism can be transferred to the rest of the town, then the redevelopment of Broad Lane will be a breeze.

But in these austere times of financial hardship, building a swimming pool on a piece of barren land requires something a little more substantial than a healthy turn out at the William Loveless Hall on a Monday evening. Here’s where Mr X and his mystery millions comes in.

Tim addressed the meeting, speaking of the “fantastic opportunity” that lay ahead for Wivenhoe:

“I am truly energised by this project. We have this offer of investment that is unheard of during these tough economic times. What we need to work out as a community is what type of facilities Broad Lane can support - sport, leisure and possibly a community centre.”

Tim spoke of how all the existing sports teams based at Broad Lane are currently on board with the ambitious idea.

“What is needed now is the momentum from the rest of the community. Please become a member of this scheme, talk with others in the town about the plans and register your interests on the Broad Lane Future website.”

An online poll has been set up to help understand the local needs for the redevelopment of Broad Lane. It’s not a beauty contest, or even a truly representative approach to making a final decision; it’s simply a good place to start and engage the debate though, both online around the village.

With participation already shown from groups such as Moving Image, the locals schools and the allotments group, what is needed now is for other groups to embrace the unifying theme that this unique project presents.

Brian Sinclair, the Mayor of Wivenhoe, was next up to address the public meeting:

“Only good can come of this project. I accept that it is going to be far from easy. We are at the very early stages. The Wivenhoe Sporting Trust is keen to see anything that encourages sport at Broad Lane to be put in place. I am aware of the previous problems that locals have had with the Trust, but we now need to move on. This is a means of joining together the community. We have the chance to draw the residents from the Cross and the Quay closer together. If we can achieve this when times are tight, then all the better.”

It can often seem something of a divide from the top of the town towards the University, all the way down to the Quay. With many of the local facilities located south of the Cross, establishing one community base up at Broad Lane seems like a means to bring together the whole community.

Transition Town Wivenhoe then gave a brief presentation, making the connection between the macro theme of less reliance on fossil fuel, with the very micro theme of local sustainability. TTW hopes to use Broad Lane to help achieve this at a very local level, but putting in place allotments around the ground.

Local architect and football coach Kevin Hall concluded the first of these public consultations for the redevelopment of Broad Lane. He described the challenges of trying to change the use of a facility that is currently half owned by Colchester Borough Council, and half owned by the Wivenhoe Youth Trustees:

“A new central club house will help to join together these two groups. This is all about local people creating local energy within Wivenhoe for a positive change. The more the facility is used, the more secure it will become. We hope to have nursery groups in there during the morning, and then continuous use up until late in the evening.”

Planning permission for the first phase of the development is already in place. Public support is required to convince the Mr X benefactor that this is a scheme that can advance forward.

Kevin explained how the timeline would continue to include another public meeting in December to discuss the ideas coming out of the online survey. Further public consultations will carry on throughout 2011, with hopefully the new facility, whatever it may incorporate, being ready for a prestigious sporting 2012 opening.

Questions then followed from the floor, and given the mystery of the Mr X financial benefactor, many of these were either cynical or suspicious of the plans explained.

“Where exactly is the money coming from?”

It was explained that Mr X wants to leave a legacy for Wivenhoe. This is a non-profit scheme, and all that is required is for local energy and enthusiasm to match the money on offer.

“What are the running costs, once the new facilities have been built?”

It was accepted that this is a challenge that needs to be addressed. A full business plan needs to be put in place to guarantee the long-term future of the scheme.

“What is the scale of investment?”

A figure of £1.4m was mentioned as the total cost of the scheme, over a two to three year period. A “significant proportion” of this is being made available from Mr X.

“How are the facilities going to be managed on a daily basis?”

To be decided…

“Is there a danger that these leisure facilities will simply be competing with the University up the road?”

In a town of ten thousand residents, it is hoped that the demand will be there for Wivenhoe locals to support both the University, and the Broad Lane facilities.

“Is the investment specific to Broad Lane? The William Loveless Hall is in great need of further expansion.”

This is also open for discussion.

“What are the car parking plans?”

It is recognised that such a scheme will create a demand for more car use. This will be incorporated into the final plans.

And so an hour later, Wivenhoe locals started to drift away from the William Loveless Hall, debating amongst themselves the merits of what they had just heard. Some of this was positive, some of this was sceptical. Little of this was negative.

Which really is what the evening was all about - to try and engage locals in thinking about the possibilities that have been presented. No one is suggesting that a swimming pool will be built before Christmas at Broad Lane. But if this type of facility emerges during this period of discussion as the main priority, then all of this positive energy will be challenged towards such a use.

I personally think that a pool needs to be a priority. Overlooking my personal interest as a daily swimmer, and it doesn’t take a financial forecast sheet to work out that Broad Lane needs to offer an alternative option.

Treadmills are ten a penny (or even a pound) over at the University. Swimming facilities around these parts are in short supply. It could be in use from early morning until late at night, supported by fitness swimmers, local schools and general leisure users. The very fact that we are having this conversation is evidence that the dialogue on Monday evening was worthwhile.

And this really is the central message: have a look at broadlanefuture.com. There’s not a great deal of content on there right now, but you need to have this initial dialogue to find out what the long term need is.

The openness of the evening was evident at the end, when I door stopped the very good Tim Patterson to ask him more about the plans.

“Um, I’ve just moved in here, I love to swim, what’s the deal?”

If the enthusiasm for Broad Lane that comes across from Tim in the audioboo above is any indication, the vision for the football club, the expansion and more importantly, the community, appears to be in safe hands.

What we need now is collective hands.