A Dumfries community group has launched a campaign in a bid to save the Loreburn Hall as its home.
The Electric Theatre Company is “concerned” at council plans to sell or rent the B-listed building deemed surplus requirements.
The group, which runs the Big Burns Supper festival, currently has a rent-free lease on the hall until the end of March.
The theatre company, and another interested party, the Drill Hall Initiative, approached the council about a community asset transfer deal.
But according to authority officials they don’t meet the required criteria.
Big Burns Supper festival chief executive Graham Main is now co-ordinating a Save the Hall campaign.
And he is urging people to fill in a community consultation questionnaire online to support their bid to retain the Newall Terrace building as their base.
Mr Main said: “Big Burns Supper is a community platform, so we are looking to save the hall for ourselves and our partners.
“There is another group who is interested in asset transfer which means Dumfries and Galloway Council have to make a decision which is fair and transparent.”
The theatre group approached the council to use the hall for this year’s Big Burns Supper, which then went online due to Covid, but it has hosted other entertainment activities, including movie nights.
Mr Main said: “So far, we have delivered 245 events which have reached an audience of just over 19,000 and created 45 temporary jobs. We have effectively pivoted all the magic of Big Burns Supper into a year round venue.
“Our community consultation is our way of engaging local people in our vision for Loreburn Hall. We had planned on doing this in early 2023, but when the option to sell came up this has made this a bit more urgent.
“We are interested in hearing about groups or organisations that want to work with us. Big Burns Supper won’t be able to do it all, so we are looking for projects that may want to share the space with us.
“Our vision is that the Loreburn Hall becomes a place where lots of different community events take place and that we are able to bring first class arts and entertainment to Dumfries and Galloway. We are interested in using Loreburn Hall as a way to help us redefine our town centre but also as a place where our community can reconnect as a social space.
“Rather than us arguing about who gets the hall, we need Dumfries and Galloway Council to let us continue staging major events so that people throughout the Borderlands area start to recognise that Dumfries is open for business.”
As part of the consultation people are being invited to attend an open event on Sunday, December 18 or Monday, December 19 between 10am and 4pm where the Big Burns Supper team will listen to suggestions and will answer questions. Alternatively, there’s an online Facebook event on Tuesday, December 20 between 6pm and 7pm.
More than 400 people have so far completed the survey and put forward ideas such as using the hall for dog shows, food festivals and a regional ticketing centre for shows.
The online survey can be filled out at: https://bigburnssupper.com/loreburn-hall-community-consultation/.
