The Planning Committee of Bedford Borough Council met on Monday the 24th August to consider our Planning Application for ‘Change of Use’ for the building from Employment (B1) to Community use (D1). Around 50 folks from the King’s Arms attended the meting and, following 45 minutes of tortuous deliberation on a wind farm application, we were delighted when our application was approved unanimously by the committee in under two minutes. For a time there was bedlam as the room erupted in loud cheering – something that I suspect doesn’t happen to often at planning committee meetings.
The approval by the committee is subject to various issues linked to noise and parking being satisfactorily resolved, and we are still working on these.
Having got over one major hurdle (well almost!) we are now starting to look ahead in more detail and our best estimate of the future timescales is:
1. Completion of the purchase in late Dec/early Jan.
2. Occupy the offices, following their refurbishment, by the end of Feb 2010.
3. Commence development of the main auditorium, welcome area, kings kids, toilets etc etc in Jan 2010, with the aim of being able to use the facilities from September 2010.
Looking back over the last year we have not been very good at keeping to our forecast timescales, but hopefully we will improve in this next phase.
Roydon
