At last there is some good news - we have moved into temporary studio accommodation. The studio address is 28 Corporation Street, Bolton, BL1 2AN. There are ten studios spread over four floors and, although we don’t officially open until 1st June, all the studio spaces are already taken.
We are still in negotiations for permanent premises which will have more space, so if anyone is interested in going on our waiting list - contact us via the main website.
You may have noticed there has been a distinct lack of studio progress recorded on the blog lately. The main reason for that is the economic recession. We have had to rethink our original studio plans to take account of the fact that our members may not be able to afford what we would have to charge to cover the outgoings on our planned studios in Howe Bridge Mill, Atherton.
Algonside that, Bolton Council Development & Regeneration Department have been encouraging us to open studios in Bolton. So we have put the Howe Bridge Mill premises on hold for the time being while we explore opportunities in Bolton which, due to the economic downturn, may now be within our financial reach.
Another reason for not updating our progress on the blog is that some of our negotiations can be business sensitive. So from now on we will continue to keep our members informed via the website, but we will only post progress on the blog when we have something definite to report. Hopefully, that will be sooner rather than later.
Just when we thought nothing was happening, everything happens at once. As you can see from above, our proposed studios were featured in the Leigh Reporter last week.
Meanwhile, we’ve been advised that we do need ‘change of use’ planning permission, and building regulations approval, so we applied for both of those last week. An Environment Inspector came out to look at our site this week to check that our proposed dust/fume extraction systems from the sculpture workshop won’t upset the neighbours. Glad to report he seemed to be happy with what he saw so there shouldn’t be a problem with the planning application.
We’ve been in further negotiations with the mill owners in the last few weeks because they wanted us to provide a guarantor to ensure we could meet our obligations under the lease. Needless to say none of us were prepared to risk our houses on this and so we’re happy to report that, as a result of reviewing our business plan, they’ve now conceded on this point. Therefore, we have instructed our solicitors to proceed with the ‘agreement to lease’.
Watch this space ….
At last, the company has been approved and registered at Companies House as Neoartists Studios Community Interest Company with effect from 5th September 2008.
Not much progress to report this week, we’re still playing the waiting game.
We’re still waiting for confirmation that the company has been registered. It’s been delayed because we are registering as a Community Interest Company and that is much more complex than just setting up a normal company.
When we are formally registered we need to open a new bank account, but we can’t do that until we get some formal confirmation from Companies House. Therefore, unfortunately, we’re still not in a position to tell members our new sort code and account number for them to set up their standing orders. This should be resolved next week though.
It’s the same with the funding applications. We need the confirmation that we have been registered before we can submit the applications.
We’re also waiting to hear from Wigan Council as to whether we need planning permission for the building work we are planning to do in Howe Bridge Mill. That’s needed for the funding applications as well.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. We have allowed for these delays in our project plan and so we are still on track to open in March 2009.
We’re still not getting any response to these updates. It would be nice to know that people were interested in progress (or lack of it as the case may be!). Please can you let us know you are reading them, even if you haven’t got any comments or questions?