Haverhill Town Council backs proposal to create new health & wellbeing hub
Haverhill Town Council has committed to supporting the creation of a new health and wellbeing hub in the heart of the community.
Described as a ‘one-stop shop’, where people would be able to get help on site or through a deferral, it would provide help across a range of issues, such as mental health, substance abuse, homelessness and housing needs, financial advice and employment and skills.
Called the Haverhill Health & Wellbeing Hub, it would be based in the former Stourview Medical Centre, in Crown Passage off High Street, which was bought in June 2024 by West Suffolk Council after being vacated by the GP practice that was using it.
At the full Haverhill Town Council meeting on Monday, councillors were asked if they wanted to progress with the project, having seen a financial report prepared by the town clerk, Colin Poole.
Cllr Lora Miller-Jones said: "I'm really so happy that we have got to this point because I thought a while ago the numbers were not going to add up and it wasn't looking great.
"We have been wanting this for our town for so long."
She added: "I'm very excited and I think it's going to be brilliant."
Mr Poole explained that the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Health Board (ICB) had come up with the model for the hub, one used successfully in other parts of the country.
He added that construction company Waites, which is currently engaged on the big expansion of nearby Highpoint Prison, has offered to help create a café space in the hub, if needed, and that it wold be necessary to apply for grants to complete the work on the building.
Mr Poole said the town council needed to get behind the project in order to attract more involvement from others.
“It comes down to someone needing to take the leap of faith,” he said.
“If it’s not going to be the town council, for the people of Haverhill, who is going to do it, because it doesn’t look likely that anyone else is.”
In terms of funding, he explained that the ICB has allocated £55,000 for the hub.
Initially £20,000 had been pledged to the hub and £35,000 would be provided through grants for various projects.
However, added Mr Poole, the mental health advisory group had voted that the hub was more important than a grant scheme because it achieved so much so it would get the full £55,000.
The total expenditure for the scheme would be £130,000 in the first 18 months, it was explained, with an income of £134,000.
Money would have to put each year, he continued, into an earmarked reserve so it is still in the town council’s bank account but allocated to the hub project.
Enough surplus money would be in the reserves until the third year of the project, said Mr Poole, but if nobody from the health sector comes forward by that point to take up space and start paying rent, then the town council could withdraw before it starting putting money in.
He said: “We would invoke a break clause on our lease because there would be no point in continuing on with it.”
It would cost the town council about £10,000 per year to keep the hub until the three-year break-out clause could be activated.
After an initial six months rent-free period WSC would charge the town council £25,000 annual rent, a fact that displeased a number of councillors.
Cllr John Burns said: “I've got big grave doubts about this, from a financial point of view.
"There is zero input from West Suffolk, zero from county council.
"We are effectively handing out £25,000 a year to West Suffolk for a building they brought, which we should have bought to be honest."
He continued: "I do worry that this and other projects we've got going on, we are going to put this council in massive debt."
On the issue of the rent charged, Mr Poole said West Suffolk Council was 'not prepared to shift' on it but added that the landlord would be under an obligation to use that money for any maintenance costs.
Cllr Pat Hanlon said: "At the end of the day we have got to think about the people that we represent. We represent the people of Haverhill.
"Yes obviously the cuts have been big over the last 14 years for local government.
"They've taken a massive hit over the last 14 years, 60 per cent of their budget is gone
“West Suffolk Council for instance, two thirds of their finance from government paid for everything, now it's less than one third because most of it now comes in from rents, rents from places they buy, so they can get the income from them.
"I do agree that they should contribute more.
"We've got to think about the people of Haverhill and they need this hub."
Cllr Joe Mason: "I support investment in signposting and helping those people in our community that are struggling and I think we have fragmented services and I think this is a real attempt to pull them together.
"I am nervous about the numbers but that's not to say that we should just automatically act commercially.
"I think it's about our comfortableness with the exposure of the risk to the taxpayer and equally we have to try and define whether the taxpayer wants us to do this."
The location, the parking area and the approach to the building would need improving and made to look more appealing, he added, an observation backed by Cllr Paul Firman.
Cllr Firman added: "It's another good thing for the town. We need something now, we do."
Cllr Tony Brown said he too had concerns over the finances, but added: "Us in this room, we are generally lucky enough.
“We have got our houses. Most of us don't suffer with our mental health, I assume.
“We live quite good lives but there is a lot of people in this town that unfortunately don't and we are here to represent those.
"There's a lot of people that do struggle. This sort of facility could benefit them hugely. I see it as a one-stop shop that points people in the right direction.
"This could potentially mean the difference between life and death for some people, it really could.
"People that are struggling with homelessness and all those other things. It's something that we can potentially help with here.
"There is concern over the financial side of things but the three-year break gives me great confidence that the worst case scenario is that it's going to cost us £30,000.
"It's a lot of money but for the potential, the difference that this could make to some residents in this town, I personally am willing to take that risk."
Councillors voted to support the creation of the hub.
