Future of the Sun, Moon & Stars Building

FIRST OF ALL, A SOUTH NORTHANTS COUNCIL REPORT ON DEVELOPMENTS
SINCE 1980 AND AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PRESENT POSITION, Nov 7th, 2006

South Northamptonshire Council has finally been given formal permission from the Secretary of State for the compulsory purchase of the listed Sun, Moon and Stars building in Blisworth following the public inquiry held earlier this year.

Plans to save the Grade 2 Listed Building have been underway for many years after a lorry crashed into part of the building in the 1980s.

The owner was served with Repair Notices when 'reasonable steps were not being taken to properly preserve the building'. When these failed, the council drafted a compulsory purchase order to save the building.

Now, with confirmation of the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO), the council can work with the owner to agree a price before starting work to repair the building and get it back into use.

Councillor John Townsend, Cabinet Member for safeguarding rural communities said, "We are very pleased that this long running project has finally been given the formal go-ahead from government. Listed buildings form an important part of the character of our rural communities and the Sun, Moon and Stars was such an integral part of the village that the Council felt it was very important to protect it."

The owner's objection to the CPO in 2004 led to a public inquiry in July 2006, which concluded that reasonable steps had not been taken to properly preserve the listed building.

The Secretary of State was satisfied that it was necessary to compulsory purchase the building to make sure it would be preserved.

A Blisworth-based committee was formed in early October 2006 to explore and promote the possibility of making use of a part of this building as a key part of a Community Project. This committee will next prepare a business plan at least partly based upon 'lottery funding' to submit to the Council. The project title is the Sun, Moon and Stars Community Project.

There has been a bit of a row! Confusion has been created lately because of two unfortunate errors. (1) the Blisworth Heritage Society (BHS) has been associated with, and even made to appear responsible for, the promotional activities of the community project committee. It is evident that this linking was not intended. It was, in fact, made clear at the outset by the BHS that they would not be involved in the project. (2) the promotional activities at Blisworth have been linked to 'interests' at Stoke Bruerne. Maybe this was a pure accident but there is absolutely NO "Stoke Bruerne - Blisworth Partnership". Any interests at Stoke Bruerne in the eventual commercialisation of Blisworth are merely informal.

It is not clear whether or not the community project committee will issue clarifying statements on these two points.

Meanwhile, the lobbying for support and funds continues by the efforts of the community project committee and further progress on this will be reported below.

For the record, this website has no linking with the Sun, Moon & Stars Community Project and has no formal linking either with the Blisworth Heritage Society. There are however, obvious common threads between the objectives of both groups and the aims of this site.

On June 6th the CPO was successfully served on the owner. Consequently, the building is now in the hands of the South Northamptonshire Council who continue negotiations with the former owner. The committee directing the community project (SMS Steering Group) are continuing their work in securing a part of the building for community use, ie. coffee shop/bistro/visitor centre/museum. Quotes from the SNC bulletin are as follows, "Geo. Freeston was well known locally and there is a lot of support to see his collection properly archived and available to a wider audience." There will be "conducted a feasibility study to look at possible uses for the building, and funding sources - findings to be presented to the Council before the end of the year."

It is the intention of the SMS Steering Group to soon set up a website enabling them to publicise their activities in a timely and efficient way. A link will then be placed on this page for readers to follow the story. One issue that obviously needs attention, judging from ad hoc comments in the village and what is quoted in the previous paragraph, is that people need to be kept informed of the details (business plan etc) of what is intended - especially as preparations are being done by a group whose members have not been 'voted into office'. Their website will answer this point.

In the dwell time while we wait for a website announcement I draw attention briefly to a little bit of work I have done on the history of the building and a minor revelation that has struck me. I promise there will be only rare occasions like this when a bit of this website look like personal blog. Please read.

Working with the SNC, the group, Blisworth Historical Buildings Trust (BHBT), is trying to get a housing association to develop some flats as affordable housing in the back and upper floors of the building. They are also talking to developers so that we have another option if affordable housing is not possible. They are also making a large number of applications for funding and have received one grant of £500 which will help with our current costs. One interesting possibility is the East Midlands Development Agency as they have funding for regeneration relating to the canal. They hope to develop a coffee shop and bistro in the front ground floor rooms. This area will also be available as a village meeting place with potential for heritage exhibitions and displays by other village organisations.

There was to be a Village Meeting on Thurs. 27th Sept at 7.30 in the Leisure Hall of the Baptist Church but it was felt there were insufficient resolved issues to make the meeting useful. It was later stated that the meeting was only postponed for "vital information" and a new date - 25th October (same time and venue) had been arranged - accordingly, the next update will be on the 25th October!

Owing to continuing delays there is one major task to be completed before the SNC can judge the best way to proceed with disposal of the building. SNC have acknowledged that a mixed use, ie. housing and commercial (with a little heritage space included), is desirable but require a detailed architectural survey to be done, an operation referred to as an "Options Appraisal", before picking a route through this complex project. The question of where the funding will come from to provide the heritage space is not resolved however. It seemed that yesterdays meeting, in terms of new information, could have been delayed a further 2 to 3 months but I am sure the village appreciated the offer of an update. Further news is not expected before June 2008 but the grant of money to carry out the detailed architectural survey has been received and so the cost implications of a space reserved for village use can be properly assessed.

The architectural survey, mentioned above, and the appraisal of options has begun. The report from this activity will include:

The planning context and why the building is at risk
    The condition and principal repairs required
        A market analysis in relation to potential future use
            The preferred scheme for the building and the likely benefits
                Valuation of the building
                    Financial analysis and viability of any proposal

The options appraisal was finished and delivered to the BHBT. The document analyses and costs various ways in which the building could be brought up to full Grade II condition with the space used in various ways, namely; (i) purely as housing, (ii) part housing (4 small units) with one business eg. cafe and (iii) likewise with a small business run by community effort with various community functions offered alongside. There is the suggestion that the cellar space be used either for storage or extended office space. The cost of the full restoration is thought to be estimated at £800,000 excluding the purchase cost of the building. The BHBT presented a proposal based on the findings to the SNC on December 1st (a week later than envisaged) and added that in recent discussions within the village another interesting option had been raised - a B&B business combined with some community space. As this was seen by BHBT as the now preferred option, the overall report needs to be filled out. The "final" version is expected in January 2009 and will be presented to the SNC for consideration. The BHBT preference seems to be particularly problematical for the SNC to endorse (in that such a design would have no accommodation for alternatives) - however, they are expected to move forward towards a decision.

The completed options appraisal has been presented to the SNC and they have now reached a decision on the sort of future the building may enjoy. They have engaged the services of "The Towcester Partnership" in order to arrive at various viable financial plans. With all the "stops pulled out", ie. a building that is restored to Grade II standard, one that offers the entire ground floor for community use and offers a cellar for community archives and one that provides five one-bedroom flats that may be either marketed on the free market or sold to Northamptonshire Homes plc., the purchase would involve SNC handling a short-term cash deficit with a breakeven point in "x number of years". Thus the purchase problem has been solved in principle by TTP but, nevertheless, SNC might find the arrangement unattractive and simply sell the building to a developer. Mid-September 2009 is now seen as a time when plans should be resolved.