Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) and the Northern Ireland Office have invited Praxis into further discussions regarding its garden premises at Hillsborough Castle, although they maintain that Praxis cannot continue its operations there.

Campaigners from Praxis Care organised a protest outside the castle yesterday as part of continued efforts by the charity to hold on to the premises which, if lost, would result in the loss of jobs for 16 people with learning difficulties and seven support staff. The charity said it will face a £400,000 loss if it is forced to leave its Secret Garden premises in the grounds of Hillsborough Castle. 

A joint statement issued by Historic Royal Palaces, who are taking over the running of the castle, and the Northern Ireland Office (NIO), which currently maintains it, said that that they are absolutely clear that Praxis cannot remain in the castle garden.

They said: “The space Praxis currently occupies is crucial to Historic Royal Palaces’ plans for the new infrastructure on which its vision depends. It is not possible to have both Praxis in the walled garden and the Historic Royal Palaces project; it is one or the other.”

Yesterday’s protest was organised by the local residents' association to support Praxis’s position on the Secret Garden. Praxis’s management team attended the demonstration, as did political representatives from every party across Northern Ireland.

Following the protest, the NIO and HRP extended an invitation to have further discussions in private with Praxis, despite vowing not to change their position on the charity’s expulsion. Both organisations have said they are keen to find a way for some of its service users to remain at Hillsborough in the long term, within its new operating model.

A spokesman for Praxis said the charity hopes that the 16 people with learning difficulties be part of the new project, so that it will be inclusive of all sections of the community.

Its second option is that it moves to a different site but receives sufficient compensation for the investment it made in the garden to make new premises comfortable for its service users.

Its third option would be for Praxis to find somewhere new with no additional support from NIO nor HRP and most likely involve merging the service users into other parts of the organisations. However this could be distressing for the 16 people with learning difficulties as the garden has been hugely beneficial and therapeutic for these people and there is unlikely to be another garden facility available.

Praxis maintains that the window of negotiation is still open with the NIO and HRP.

Both the NIO and HRP maintain that Praxis was given well over a year’s notice that they had to leave and that the terms of its licence made it clear that the £400,000 cannot be compensated.

Labour government agreed lease extension

They state that Praxis has always known this and has benefitted significantly from generous terms offered by the NIO during the nine years it has held the premises. This has included an annual rent of just £1.

However Praxis argues that, although this was a clause in the lease agreement, the agreement was going to be extended for a further ten years by the Labour government before it went out of power. However this pledge was withdrawn by the for the coalition government.

The spokesman said: “There was an expectation for Praxis that we would be remaining there for a longer period and therefore the investment we made would have been worthwhile.”

He added that another clause of the lease agreement stated the site must be left as it was found. When Praxis arrived it was a derelict site and it built the infrastructure. However the spokesman claims that HRP has said the developed site is crucial to its needs.

He said: “Our argument is that if it is crucial to their needs and the infrastructure is already there, is it unreasonable to expect some compensation so we could at least replicate some of what we have there on another site?”

The NIO and HRP said: “The plans for Hillsborough will bring substantial investment, create new jobs and attract greatly increased visitor numbers, bringing a very welcome boost to the local economy. 

“There will be a range of new educational opportunities, and there will be scope for other charities to work with HRP under their highly successful community outreach programme.”

Historic Royal Palaces is a charity that manages premises including the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace.