Pub site sale information.

Good news!  The pub site has been sold; by that I mean that the deal has been legally completed. Also the planning application to use a small part of the playing field to extend the pub site (to give sufficient car parking) has been agreed by the Borough Council. We had agreed to this because otherwise we ran the risk of not getting a pub at all.

Buyers of the site are a new company called Mawsley Taverns Ltd. The only name we recognise in the directors is Michael Pittam, owner of the Whyte Melville pub in Boughton. This is generally agreed to be a good pub, with good food.

We will invite them to the parish council to outline what their plans are (e.g. what kind of pub; timescales); however they are under no obligation to do so.

I can also confirm that the employment land site has been sold too. Buyer is City and County Development of Bedford . We do not know anything about them. We will also ask them to come to the parish council to outline their plans. In particular we would like to know:

• whether they envisage being able to get a shop there. The idea of putting a shop there, rather than using the designated shop site (which is too small and with no space for customer parking) was discussed some time ago by the parish council with the agents who were selling the site on behalf of Wimpey.
• what kinds of employment units they hope to see there: e.g. for sale or for rent.
• what kinds of units they hope to build: i.e. the balance between workshops, retail, maybe a takeaway, maybe a nursery etc..
• whether we will be able to use the car parking area as overflow car parking for The Centre (and hence remove some of the grasscrete parking we have been obliged to accept behind The Centre).
• their overall design approach.