March 27, 2001 15:23: A WAR memorial built to commemorate soldiers from Harpenden who died during the First World War went up for sale last week as a local consortium prepares to bid for the historic property.
Built during the 1930's, 40 Luton Road is now the property of West Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, but a plaque with the names of Harpenden's war dead is believed to be concealed behind some boarding somewhere in the building.
For the past ten years, the building has been home to Community Meeting Point (CMP) a group established to offer help and support to residents of Harpenden suffering from mental health problems.
For two days a week CMP offers a therapeutic day centre to boost members' confidence and for three days offers training in business and secretarial skills.
CMP and an NHS dental practice which also uses the building have been told they must leave there by the end of September.
Fears that the property may be pulled down by developers wishing to capitalise on this lucrative site have prompted a consortium of local groups led by CMP to put in their own bid to save the house.
The consortium includes High Town Praetorian Housing Association, the Harpenden War Memorial Committee and an anonymous benefactor, and is currently preparing its own bid for the site.
Chairman of CMP Christine Roberts, is keen that the consortium's bid should be accepted in order to save one of the town's most historic sites from destruction.
She said: "We would like to keep the NHS dentist on the site and CMP would remain on the ground floor and continue our work and some of these rooms could be used in the evenings by the community.
"We would also like the upper stories to be developed for low-cost housing for nurses or teachers.
"It needs a lot of refurbishment and a lot of money would need to be invested, but we have a local benefactor who has expressed a wish to help if the site is kept for the community.
"High Town Praetorian Housing Association is also willing to put money in because it would get rent from the low cost housing.
"At this point we are very hopeful, but we have no idea who else might be interested or what sort of sums we might be talking about."
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