A village scout hut has been saved from demolition, but campaigners fear they still face a fight to secure its long-term future.
Residents in St Martins, who helped build the hut as part of a ‘buy a brick’ scheme, had expressed concern over plans, which were submitted by Ifton Miners Welfare Institute, to build houses on the site.
The application was for land adjoining the club including the area leased by the scouts. The hut, which was built in 1990, is used by 60 children.
But the lease for the hut runs out in 2011, and scout leaders have yet to hear confirmation that it will be renewed despite writing to their landlords at the institute.
Oswestry Borough Council had received nine objections from residents as well as 23 from parents of scouts. St Martins Parish Council also objected.
A decision was expected in June but the application was deferred. It then came before July’s OBC planning meeting where it was provisionally refused, but it could not be made official before a meeting on August 12.
Andy Mather, group scout leader, said: “We’re happy in one respect, but our lease runs out in February 2011 so we now have to renew it. I’ve written to the institute but haven’t heard anything.
“We’d still like to expand as we’ve got capacity for 20, but we have 28 beavers starting in September.”
George Healey, St Martins parish councillor and an ex-scout and trustee, said: “If it had been approved it would be another amenity gone. Where are the youth going to go then?
“In a couple of years when the lease runs out they might try again so we’ve got to be ready for them.”
A spokesperson from OBC’s planning department said the institute had not put in any new plans since the refusal, but they did have the right to an appeal.
A statement from the planning committee said: “Insufficient evidence has been provided to prove that the development can be supplied with mains water at an adequate pressure and would not exacerbate the existing situation in the village.”
Nobody was available for comment from Ifton Miners Welfare Institute as the Chronicle went to press.
