Published: November 19, 2008
Overhaul of Burnham-On-Sea's Princess Hall hit by new delays

A decision on the future of Burnham-On-Sea's Princess Hall is to be put on ice for at least a year because of problems in finding enough funding for the regeneration of the building.

Nicola Slawski, Group Manager of Regeneration at Sedgemoor District Council, revealed at the Burnham and Highbridge Regeneration Partnership AGM on Tuesday night (November 18th) that problems in finding enough cash for the ambitious plans to overhaul the hall, pictured, mean she wants to delay the project by 12 months.

"Given the current recession, it has been difficult to get funding and the recent Sea Change decision was a disappointment," she told the audience of almost 40 people at Tuesday's public meeting.

"I intend to ask Sedgemoor's Executive in early December to delay making a decision on the future of the Princess for a year."

"This will allow a 'friends of' group to be set up to look after the building and give more time to look into more possible sources of funding."

"We have a meeting of the steering group over the next few days to discuss the proposals in more detail."

"I am still hoping that various parts of Burnham's regeneration can start next September and if the adult learning centre and community centre were to move into the Princess, we could still generate enough funding."

"For the time being, though, we're likely to go for the option where we'll promote the Princess in its current state and try to maximise the number of users visiting it."

Ken Hindle, Chairman of the Burnham Community Centre Committee, told Tuesday's meeting that the Berrow Road centre is thriving where it is: "We have over 50 groups using the centre and want to develop it and move it forward."

Burnham resident Tony Lynham, who spoke in favour of the Princess at a recent town council meeting, said at Tuesday's meeting that the Princess had suffered "because it has never been promoted properly by Sedgemoor District Council."

Tuesday's meeting came just 24 hours after Burnham-On-Sea.com revealed that Tesco had pledged to give £200,000 towards the regeneration of the town centre if its store expansion proposals get the go-ahead.