Community cafe planned for Newbury Park
Council say it'll be an important community hub.
A community cafe is being planned for Victoria Park.
The proposed Community café will be bigger than the existing kiosk, with a footprint roughly that of the kiosk and the adjoining store. It will have a toilet with baby changing facilities and disabled access, as well as male, female and disabled toilets for users of the Park.
Cllr Martin Colston, Leader of the Council said:
“There have been plans to build a new modern Community Cafe in the park for quite a number of years. Our planning application is an important milestone in this process. The Park has undergone some major refurbishment and additions over the last few years, and this would be the finishing touch to Newbury’s ‘Jewel in the Crown. The Park is also a key element in Newbury’s pedestrian and cyclist routes, offering safe passage to the Town Centre from all directions."
He continued, “At the forefront of these proposals is the Council’s commitment to provide a Café that will operate 364 days per year and will be an important and valuable community hub for the Town. In accordance with our green credentials, we also want to ensure that the new building is designed to enable carbon neutral operation. The design proposals include solar electricity generation and air source heat pumps for heating. We also have a target to gain BREEAM Excellent and carbon neutrality for the design and construction of the building."
The building will feature a specialist Changing Places facility with hoist and changing table.
It will also be a base for the CCTV hub in the Park and have facilities for our tennis coaches.
It will be of traditional timber clad construction, with a modern twist, the new building would fit in the same position as the existing buildings which will be demolished to make way for this improved facility
Full height glazing and bi-fold doors would be used to open up and connect the building to the surrounding park and views to the play area and beyond.
The costs of the community café will be funded through a combination of a public works loan and contributions from developers (Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levies).
The Town Council hopes to have planning permission by January 2021.
A planning application has been submitted to West Berkshire Council and is available to view on the website https://publicaccess.westberks.gov.uk/online-applications/, reference no. 20/02294