Inviting the Neighbours Round

Before the Community Centre meeting on July 5th, the Committee invited their near neighbours on Hockenhull Lane to come round and hear about some plans that might affect them.

The Community Centre is currently considering removing some of the dense laurel bushes and a small tree at the rear of the property and erecting a small, single story, timber building that would provide extra storage capacity. The impetus for this came from the Ashton Hayes Theatre Club, whose performances are much appreciated by many in the village. At the moment the Club stores its many costumes and props in a series on outbuildings and barns throughout Ashton, a situation that is leading to the damage of much valuable stock. A recent visit to the Community Centre with a plea to help showed that, despite some creative and 'blue sky' suggestions, there wasn't a spare inch to be had.

There are a number of other organisation that store items permanently in the Community Centre and, with the large rear room soon to be reborn as a lounge, the ability to find suitable space for sensible storage is getting limited. Hence the idea of an external storage space.

Before anything can happen the Committee felt they should ask the opinion of their neighbours and were delighted with the positive response. The dense laurel hedge is no thing of beauty, and as long as there is new planting to soften the new structure, they had no objections.

The idea now has to be costed accurately and funding must be secured, planning permission will be needed as will the permission of the landlord, CW&C. The proposal has started to move forward, though it could be some time before there will be any changes on the ground.