Plans would give hall a new lease of life (From Western Telegraph)

Plans would give hall a new lease of life

1:00pm Tuesday 12th February 2013 in County News

Members of the public have until tomorrow (Wednesday) February 13th to comment on plans to give a well-known Fishguard building a new lease of life.

St Mary’s Hall, built in the 1930s to combat poverty and unemployment, was sold by the church last September after a campaign to renovate it as a community facility failed.

The hall has been bought by Rhodri Smith, of Dinas, who plans to convert the upper floors into family living accommodation and the ground floor into a shop and café.

The shop, selling breads and patisserie, would front Main Street and Mr Smith has applied to open and reglaze the boarded up windows and to install three quarter windows in the wooden doors.

A 280 metre square café and multi-purpose arts venue would occupy most of the main hall with an open kitchen, featuring a professional wood-fired oven, at the back.

The business would employ two full-time members of staff and two parttimers.

“As new owners of a wellknown old building in Fishguard and one that is within a conservation area, we are keen to retain the internal and external character of the building,” said Mr Smith.

“We intend to keep the exterior of the building as it is. Cleaning the Bath stone on the front elevation will be a priority and exterior walls will be painted to compliment this stone and other buildings in the town centre.

“The internal alterations will compliment the present character by using use materials from the same era or upcycle materials already present.”

Mr Smith also says he intends to keep the building and business as environmentally sustainable as possible, insulating the building, installing solar panels, using local produce and running the stove on local carbon neutral hardwoods.

The plans can be seen on Pembrokeshire County Council’s website.