I stayed at Ivinghoe on Saturday night and can't for the life of me see 
why the YHA are closing it.  The stated reason apparently is that it's a 
one star hostel and it would cost too much to bring it up to a three 
star standard.  This might be true, depending on what that standard 
entails; however only two criticisms occurred to me about the hostel, 
and both of those are easily answered:

1. The members' kitchen is long and not particularly wide, and 
appallingly laid out.  It has three full-sized cookers with only one 
sink.  The cookers are all in a row along the same wall as the sink; the 
utensils are kept on a unit against the opposite wall - and there's a 
dining(?) table in in the middle which can double up a a sort of traffic 
island in its spare time.  Daft.  Luckily I was the only person using 
it, but convenient it was not.  The answer of course is to rearrange 
things so that the 'kitchen' area is separate from the 'dining' area.  
This could be done by simply swapping over the table and the units on 
which the pans and utensils live.  It would take a couple of people 
around half an hour maximum, and that includes having a cuppa 
afterwards.

2. The dorm I was in didn't have a washbasin in so I had to use the one 
in the toilet.  There are two toilets and two showers on the second 
floor; I didn't investigate the floor below.  If the other dorms don't 
have a washbasin that's two washbasins between a lot of people - and 
using a washbasin means that a toilet is occupied.  That is quite 
plainly barking mad.  I don't know how much it would cost to install a 
washbasin in each dorm, but I can't imagine it would be very much, 
compared with the cost of whatever else the YHA think the hostel needs.

What's wrong with a 'one star' hostel, in any case?  Are the YHA going 
to close Black Sail?  And how many stars would Black Sail have if 
somewhere like Ivinghoe (electricity, gas, hot/cold running water, road 
access etc) is only deserving of one?  Had my dorm been full the lack of 
adequate basins and toilets would have been a problem.  As it was I had 
the whole dorm to myself.  There were two parties staying there - all 
adults - and a couple of other individuals.  Not bad for October, I 
wouldn't have thought.

Of course, were I of a cynical bent I'd be imagining that the proposed 
sale of Ivinghoe has less to do with its star rating than its location 
in a very expensive part of the country.  Let's see now: we have here a 
large solidly built building with decent sized rooms, with private car 
parking across a small and somewhat 'naice' close.  It has outbuildings 
(cycle store), it's ideally situated opposite the village green and next 
to the Church, it already has the necessary plumbing and kitchen 
facilities... it could make a superb hotel or set of private flats...  
Hmm.  The only thing it lacks is a garden.  What a good job I'm not a 
cynical person.  Bah.  I'm losing patience with the YHA.

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