NEWS FROM THE GATEACRE SOCIETY (Nov.2003)

Cleggs Closing Down
The owners of Messrs Cleggs' felt factory in Gateacre Brow have announced that the factory will close before Christmas. The parent company, W.E.Rawson Ltd, will transfer production to their plant in Wakefield, Yorkshire. The factory in Gateacre is a listed building - it was built in the mid nineteenth century as a 'country' brewery owned by the Fleetwood family, later Gregory's - and any changes to its external appearance will require listed building consent. It is rumoured that the owners envisage its conversion to (surprise, surprise) 'luxury apartments', and it is unlikely that we would oppose this - provided the character of the building is preserved and the traffic problems of the village are not exacerbated. As yet, however, no planning application has been submitted.

More building at the Comp.
Planning Application 03DC/3244 has been submitted 'to erect sports hall, changing facilities, staff office with mezzanine level fitness suite with internal link to existing swimming pool' at Gateacre Comprehensive School, Grange Lane. While appreciating that the School needs more sports facilities, local residents are concerned that the new building may be promoted as a public leisure centre: a substitute for the complex once planned for Belle Vale, which is a much more accessible location and much closer to the real 'area of need' for such facilities.

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