At the Parish Council meeting held on February 1st 2010, a large number of residents attended to voice their continued support for the refurbishment of the ‘Carrington’. They requested that regular updates should be published and the first of these is shown below.
A promise has been extracted from Simon Hill to keep in touch with the Clerk reasonably regularly even to report “no further progress”. The Clerk has already agreed to place regular updates in newsletters, on web site and in meetings for the community through the Open Forum facility at the start of each and every general Parish Council meeting. Simon confirmed to the Clerk that he is still 100% committed to restoring the Carrington Arms and to re-open it as a pub/bistro as well as having a B&B facility – as in the original planning application submission. Simon was adamant that contrary to rumours circulating, he has no intention of NOT opening a pub on the site.
He was candid enough to say that, without sounding flippant, he had had bigger projects that needed his energy and focus and tied in with the economic downturn, that’s why the pub project had been sidelined.
With regards to the rumour that he was stalling to allow a “change of use” on the building, he stated that people should understand that if that had been his original intention, he would have applied to do that in the first place. He has appointed someone who is keen on taking on the project of renovating the Carrington Arms and agreed with the Clerk that the entire project would cost around £400,000.
He was very open to the prospect of getting some grant/s to assist with the financing of the project and said bluntly that if there was a grant available and applicable to the project, he would be able to start work much, much sooner. Simon is not opposed to having input from an action group and would welcome the assistance.He also mentioned that when the economy perked up he would be putting in plans for several nice townhouse style places on Station Yard but that the Carrington Arms came first.
