Plan for new £444,000 community hall in Milton Keynes

Great Linford Parish Council (GLPC) has applied to the borough for planning permission to build next to the pavilion off Marsh Drive.

The plan is to get it up and running by this autumn and then spend another £140,000 on refurbishing the old pavilion where the facilities are not currently up to date.

The plan has been objected to by a local resident who used MK Council’s planning portal to send a message of disapproval to the parish. His objection centres on the prefabricated design of the plans, rather than the principle.

The resident wrote: “Altogether this separate pre-fab building concept is totally inappropriate for a Great Locality and Proud Community more a Giant Liability for a Parsimonious Council.

“I am extremely disappointed. It is my opinion that the application should be rejected.”

The parish council however sees it as an opportunity to “explore a wider vision and create a community, social, leisure and sports facility serving the whole parish for at least the next 30-40 years.”

The proposal is, they say, to develop and enhance the current sports facilities and pavilion to meet modern standards and encourage use of the sports fields, pitches and tennis courts.

It will be a 600 square-metre community hub capable of being used by all members of society and all age groups for a variety of activities.

Grounds are well used, under normal circumstances, for football, cricket, tennis and recreation.

The proposal would see an increase of nine in the number of parking spaces, to 116 and 10 spaces for cycles.

New perimeter lighting would be provided by motion sensor LED lights that would switch off after 11pm, according to the planning application documents.

Money from developers, known as section 106 funding, and the parish council’s own cash is to be used to pay for the building. A contractor has already been lined up by the parish council to carry out the work.

But the parish council says it is all subject to the situation with the coronavirus, and if consent is granted for the work.