Decision on church’s plan for former department store deferred

A decision on a church’s bid to turn the former Hill’s Department Store in Spalding into a multi-use venue for the community has been deferred.

South Holland District Council’s Planning Committee had recommended it refuse The Lighthouse Pentecostal Church’s bid to turn the prominent town centre property into a host of uses including soft play cafe, community meeting place, offices and food bank.
Planning officer Mark Niland told last week’s meeting the plans would have a ‘damaging effect on Spalding town centre’ and could cause noise problems due to a ‘lack of detail in noise controls submitted’.
Despite the authority’s own Environmental Health team raising no objections, he quoted the decision to refuse an appeal by Merkur Slots to have later hours of gambling as part of his recommendation on noise.
But the majority of councillors appeared to want to pass the application instead after representations in support including from David Sandhu, on behalf of the applicant, and Alistair Main, of the newly formed Spalding Business Improvement Board, who said local businesses backed the plans because it would improve footfall.
“The soft play area and youth area are two things that often come up with the public and our businesses about what they would like to see in the town centre to bring people in and remove some of the youth off the street,” he said.
“The Lighthouse is a wonderful thing. The business community really seem to strongly support this application.
“It will give us (the Spalding Improvement Board) the kick start and boost the town centre really needs as we begin our work.”
Mr Sandhu said: “We’ve never received any complaints about anything we do from our current location which is surrounded by residential properties.
“This initiative aims to boost foot fall, foster community engagement and enhance social cohesion in the town.”
Coun Sophie Hutchinson proposed the committee go against officer’s recommendations.
“Every survey we’ve paid for, every policy and even our own local plan, support the diversification of our high streets to support the vitality of our town centres,” she said. “They need to diversify to survive and it’s important to have active buildings that attract people, not just retail shops that often sit empty.
“This proposal would provide much needed services for all our communities in the district not just Spalding, ironically services many feel this council is failing to provide. There’s a long list of benefits.”
She received plenty of support.
Coun Anthony Casson said: “It’ll be a lot better than an empty shop in Spalding.
“Where they are now, it’s incredibly busy on Sundays and there’s very little parking. There’s more in the town centre and it would be great to get those in the town centre.”
But Coun Hutchinson was persuaded to withdraw the proposal to pass the application and instead motioned to defer it to another meeting to allow planning officers to get more information and consider what conditions could be placed on The Lighthouse to mitigate against any possible noise issues.
Coun Henry Bingham said: “The Lighthouse do great work, but personally I don’t think it’s going to draw a vast amount of people who are going to spend money in the already fragile town centre.
“I think it’s a fantastic proposal, but I don’t think it’s the right place.
“I’d like to see a bit more information as there’s far too much going on in this building.”
Even then, two councillors voted against deferment as 11 voted for the motion.