A £1.1 million lottery bid could go ahead after Chepstow councillors agreed to transfer the Drill Hall into their ownership.

At a rearranged extraordinary meeting last Wednesday (16th August), councillors voted to transfer the Drill Hall from Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) to Chepstow Town Council, which will allow the potential lottery bid to go ahead.

Councillors faced five options at the meeting and eventually decided on option three. This means, if the lottery bid is successful, the ownership of the Drill Hall would be transferred to Chepstow Town Council, and the venue would be leased to a newly-formed Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO).

The lottery bid will need to be submitted by 26th September, with a chance of success of approximately 50 per cent. However there are concerns that it may not be possible to submit the bid in time.

If successful the hall would undergo extensive renovations including an upgraded roof, new kitchen and facilities plus showers for the Chepstow Boxing Club which also uses the facility.

It would also allow for the hiring of full-time hall manager and fund courses and classes at the hall.

The meeting began with a minute’s silence in memory of Karl Daymond, who had collapsed and died following the previous week’s meeting on 9th August. A speech written by Mr Daymond was read to the meeting, where he hoped councillors would “look to the future”, and wanted to see “new faces and new ideas”.

Cllr Yvonne Havard said volunteers had “done a wonderful job” but admitted the town council “should have been holding the reigns much firmer” among concerns over the Drill Hall management committee’s transparency and openness.

Cllr David Dovey said option two would release the town council from a full repairing lease and said it would be a “no brainer” to release town council from its liabilities, a thought backed up by Cllr Jeremy Becker.

Cllr Hilary Beach said the debate had “got very emotive”, and backed Cllr Havard’s suggestion that the council should “step back” and said the hall should “be much more inclusive.”

Cllr Ned Heywood, who also chairs the Drill Hall management committee, accepted that he was “at fault” for the lack of perceived public consultation and apologised.

He also highlighted that, if the bid is not successful, the project would be “back to square one” and there will be no transfer.

Referring to concerns regarding the questionnaires, he said: “800 or so questionnaires that have been completed have not gone out to just people involved with the Drill Hall, they have gone out to the community as a whole,” a statement challenged by numerous councillors at the meeting.

The possibility of changing the constitution of the management committee was also discussed by Cllr Heywood, but he warned trustees are required to have “skills and knowledge to move the project forward.”

Amid criticism on all sides, an undecided Cllr Tom Kirton urged those involved to “put personal attacks aside”, while Cllr Armand Watts said he remembered “the dark old days” of the Drill Hall, favouring either the town council maintaining the lease, or an asset transfer from MCC to the town council.

Cllr Dale Rooke, chairing the meeting, added making a decision was “like having a £1m gun held to your head.”

The mayor said he had “reservations over the consultation”.

“They [the questionnaires] doesn’t seem to have trickled out to Thornwell, or St Christopher’s or even Larkfield if you haven’t happened to be one of the people attending one of those events,” he said.

“It’s so difficult to be able to make a sensible decision because it’s like having a £1m gun held to your head.

“I feel we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

Five councillors voted for option three, while there were two votes for option one and option two respectively.