After a slightly torrid experience getting planning permission for the buildings at Well, a curve ball was thrown when the last remaining butchers shop in Alford was put on the market.
To start from the start, my planning application for change of use on some farm buildings here at Well was submitted and all seemed to be proceeding smoothly. Then I was invited to speak about the proposal at the local Parish Meeting. I went along and spoke and was aware of some hostility from a very few people. After answering some questions I was banished from the room for the discussion and vote. Afterwards I heard the vote had gone against me, but was still not unduly worried. However a couple of days later a 13 page letter of objection was sent to the local planning department suggesting I was going to build a 24/7 food factory which would destroy the village. I spent a couple of frantic weeks building evidence to refute all the ‘harms’ that it was claimed my project would cause. Instead of my application being decided by the planning officers it was sent to committee and heard at a meet where other applications included a new supermarket and a 350 house development. I spoke for my project while the Parish Clerk and District Councillor spoke against, but the planning committee were unanimous in their support. Result!
I began putting together what I needed to do next when one Saturday morning my husband got a text from a friend asking if he knew that the Alford Butchers had come on the market. We had a look online and the price seemed steep, but we thought we would take a look. We duly viewed the premises and saw that whilst it had lots of potential it also needed quite a lot of work. I’d also done some research on what butchers shops were selling for and decided that this one wasn’t worth the asking price to us, and the owners were understandably not keen to take a low offer when they had just put the premises on the market. Ross persuaded me that we should have a look at some other shops on the market in Alford and I fell in love with one of them. We have had an offer agreed and I am very, very excited. More soon!