Great Linford Thatched Barn Statement 22nd Feb

On Wednesday 22nd February 2023, Great Linford Parish Council held a Full Council Meeting. Cllr Harvey proposed that Council accepts the decision of the MKCC Planning Officer to refuse planning permission and will not be appealing against the decision or submitting a variation or amended application of the original request. 

 

The following statement was read out at the meeting.  

 

Statement with Regards to Great Linford Thatched Barn 

 

GLPC has been notified that the planning application relating to the land at the High Street is to be refused. GLPC has no intention to appeal this refusal. 

 

Following the public meeting and having listened to some of the questions and comments made GLPC would like to make the following statement 

 

The Barn is a GLPC asset that does not currently provide a purpose and does not provide an income that contributes to its expenditure. The expenditure is funded by the entire parish, from residents in Conniburrow and all the way to Redhouse Park. 

 

The High Street as an asset produces on income of less than £4000 a year. Whilst the objectives of a parish council are not the same as a commercial organisation where we are trying to make a profit but we do need to justify the use of every penny used from the public purse, from every resident in the whole parish area. 

 

Now that the application has been refused the issue and gap between expenditure and utilisation and viability still exists. How does the council and the public purse reduce the ongoing liability maintenance costs , by using it to be a positive community asset or a liability managed by another organisation.  

 

Going forward the report of 2017 will be revisited, and further investigations will be made by a Structural engineer, following this up to date quotes for works will be obtained. 

 

It was obvious from the public meeting that there are many people in the community with skills and passion who may be available to work with the parish council to consider how this asset can be best used in the future. Several residents have indicated that they would look at ways to help and work with the parish council. 

 

I would encourage anyone that would like to be involved in this project to contact myself after this meeting or e-mail GLPC at great- linford.gov.uk. 

 

Members of the public can get involved with the council either by standing in this year’s May elections and becoming a parish councillor or if your specific concern is the utilisation of the thatched barn we would be willing to work with representatives from the community and the parish council to develop ideas on how to manage this asset. 

 

In terms of continual communication we will be setting up a page on the website which will allow you to keep in touch with progress of this project. Meetings will also contain project updates on the agenda which are posted on the website 

 

As we stated in our question and answers leaflet, trees are not included in the High Street or Thatched barn reserves, they have a reserve all of their own. There is an annual programme of works for trees that are on GLPCs land, these works will be carried out between now and the end of March.