Kent Online – like other major publications such as the Telegraph, Metro and the Sun – has carried reports on the case of a developer allegedly profiting from heritage grant funding, and not adhering to public opening requirements required in covenants.
Kent Online writes:
A banker who snapped-up an historic tower for £425,000 is selling it for £2 million just a year later – despite £3 million of taxpayers’ cash being spent on restorations. Christian Tym, 42, bought Hadlow Tower in August and promised to allow tours to run throughout the year – in exchange for the grant from Historic England and the Heritage Lottery Fund. To the dismay of residents in Tonbridge, he has not allowed a single visitor through the doors of the Grade-I listed tower – and is expected to more than quadruple his money in just 12 months….
A community action group fought to get the tower restored after it was severely damaged in the Great Storm of 1987. Locals formed the The Save Hadlow Tower Action Group, and poured £50,000 of their own cash into the building, raised through fundraising projects, which topped up cash from Heritage England and the Heritage Lottery Fund…
The one-of-a-kind, 175 ft gothic tower was built in 1830, but fell derelict before being rescued by the artist Bernard Hailstone…’
Campaigners reported that 700 people visited the castle in 2017 – with the numbers dwindling in 2018 to zero. The Heritage Lottery Fund said it expected Mr Tym to report to it in August with evidence of his compliance. Mr Tym was unavailable for comment
Read more…., view the Telegraph article, the Metro article and the Sun article
