Press Release 29.03.2011
Packed
Lymington Society AGM Hears Detailed Report on Past Year and Confirms Member’s
Support for Executive Committee’s Opposition To Redrow And Wetherspoons Planning Application.
The Lymington Society AGM took place on Monday the
21st of March in the Robert Hole Room at Lymington Community
Centre 7:30 p.m. As usual complimentary refreshments were served from seven
o’clock and by 7:30 p.m. all seats were occupied, with around 75 members
present.
The first to speak was Society President Peter Chitty,
who welcomed the Society's guests including the Lady Mayor Jan Hawker.
Society Chairman Clive Sutton then gave the Chairman’s
address describing the extremely busy year which the Society had gone through,
the highlight of which saw Mr. Sutton on national breakfast-time television,
debating the suitability of the ex Fords building as a Wetherspoons public
house. Under the present Committee,
The Society’s policy was not generally to be a pressure group but to
make sure all proposals which affected Lymington were brought to proper
public attention and that they then received the full consideration by the
relevant authorities that they required.
Mr Sutton pointed to three occasions over the last
years where the Society has held Public Meeting over issues of the new Wightlink
ferries, local concern about over-development of blocks of flats in the
town and the Paxton’s plan for the Webbs (now Redrow) site at Bridge Road. He felt
that these Public Meetings had been helpful in alerting the community to
major issues and had been very beneficial for the planning process. In particular
the planners now subjected planning applications to much greater scrutiny.
He paid tribute to the Consultation Exercises carried
out by Redrow concerning the Bridge
Road site but said that the plans were unfortunately
not ones that the Society could recommend as suitable for the town. He then went on to say that in response to local concern
the Society was now announcing a new Public Meeting into the Redrow’s
plans for the Bridge Road
site, which will be held on April the 4th at the Community Centre at 7.00
pm.
After the Chairman’s Address the Business Section
of the AGM took place. The current Committee was re-elected “en-bloc”
there having been no nominations from the floor. The Chairman welcome the
re-election of the Committee and stressed to the AGM the excellent job that
current Committee Members did for the Society to the point where he felt
he could trust all the current Members to carry out their individual responsibilities
without his input.
Treasurer Derek Sheffer then presented the accounts
showing that the Society had a surplus on its activities for the year of
£1562.00. This was down from last year’s surplus of £2109.00 due to
a lower amount earned from social events. The reserves of the Society had
still however shown a healthy increase and now stood at £7998.00 up from
£6436.00 last year. He again reminded member paying at old rates of subscription
to update their standing orders to the new subscription of £10.00
Once the Business of the Meeting was completed, Committee
Member Don Mackenzie made a presentation to the AGM on the two most contentious
issues facing the Society at the moment; namely the Redrow plans for the
former Webbs chicken factory site in Bridge Road Lymington and the Wetherspoons
plans for a new “super pub” next to St. Thomas’ Church in
St. Thomas’ Street.
Dr. Mackenzie showed illustrations from the Redrow
Planning Application indicating the great height and mass and the extreme
density of the development which Redrow plan to build. Computer illustrations
of the site from the Redrow “Design and Access Statement” made
clear the nearly 6 story height of the central section of development with
a full five storeys and a pitched roof on top of that.
Turning then to the Wetherspoons proposal for the
Ford Building
in St Thomas Street,
Dr Mackenzie showed satellite pictures to demonstrate the large size of
the Fords building and its nearness to St
Thomas’ Church. He repeated the Society’s
position that the Society was definitely not against Wetherspoons who were
welcome in the town but that this was simply the wrong place for such a
large destination public house which would change the character of the area
in a completely unacceptable way.
There then followed a lively debate with questions
from the floor which were answered by various members of the Committee. NFDC Councillor Elizabeth Lewis also spoke about
the rumoured new Wetherspoons application and made the point that their
were many reason such as smells from cooking, noisy ventilations etc which
could be mentioned by anyone, as well as the more obvious reasons for objecting.
Members were told that details of the sites concerned,
as well as links to the NFDC which they could use to make their own comments,
were available on the Society's website at www.lymsoc.co.uk
The Lady Major Jan Hawker then spoke, saying that
her information was that Wetherspoons did not have a national pricing policy
and that it may well be that they might price to match the local area rather
than necessarily be very low cost.
Members were then asked if they approved of the current
position of the Executive Committee in opposing both the Redrow and Wetherspoons
applications. Although a formal vote was not taken, members made clear their
views that they strongly supported the Society’s position on both these
applications.
Following a short break for glasses to be refilled
etc. the main speaker for the evening, Mr David Stevenson, was introduced. Mr Stevenson and his wife Denise are the new
owners of the Master’s House,
the imposing building in the grounds of the old Union Workhouse on East
Hill (better know locally as the Infirmary) which the Society saved from
demolition in 2005 by applying to English heritage for listed status.
Dr Mackenzie gave a short presentation setting out
the history of the building originally built about 1845 as the Hospital
for the newly build Workhouse. Following the application from the Society
to English Heritage in June 2005 things move very quickly and the building,
which was under threat of demolition by the New Forest PCT, was
listed on the 20th of July. In the listing details it was described
as “A well-preserved and very
rare survival of an early detached workhouse infirmary.”
Mr Stevenson then described
the condition in which they had found the building when they had successfully
purchased it from the PCT. It was in a particularly poor condition with
much dry rot and with damp permeating the whole building. Most if not all
the ordinal period features had been lost to “modernisation” in
the 1970s.
Mr Stevenson told the meeting how dedicated he
and his wife are to bringing old buildings back to life and described in
detail the renovation process which they have undertaken.
A series of excellent before
and after pictures brought the renovation process vividly to life and members
and guests were astonished by the quality of the eventual restoration. Mr
and Mrs Stevenson are planning an Open Day later in the year details of
which can be found on the Lymington Society website.
Following the usual thanks
the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 PM.
Ends
Contact
Dr Don Mackenzie
07860 106 120
donald@donald-mackenzie.co.uk
