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WEEKEND
Service planned to mark VJ Day
woman jailed for drugs offences
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IS THE PRIORY SET TO BE SOLD? Showground goes retro for festival
NEWBURY Showground turned back the clock as the annual Retro Festival was staged over the weekend. A wide variety of classic cars, live
music and fashion was on display on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with around 30,000 people visiting the festival. See page 2 for full story.
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• Vintage cars and retro fashion entertained thousands of visitors to the Retro Festival (picture by Andrew Buchanan, Newbury Camera Club)
THATCHAM’S Priory could be sold at an estimated loss of more than half a million pounds following its restoration, it has been revealed. Last Tuesday the town council’s Priory committee voted to seek formal valuations for the Church Lane building with a view to selling it to a private investor. The committee heard that a market appraisal – an estimation of what a building could be worth – had been received for the Priory of between £625,000 and £700,000. But with the council having paid £400,000 for the Priory in 2009 and a fi nal cost of the restoration estimated at around £815,000, it could mean a loss of almost £600,000. The Priory’s restoration began last year under the previous Liberal Democrat administration, with around £300,000 having been spent on the project so far. And at an extraordinary meeting of the town council on Monday, the committee’s recommendation to seek a formal valuation of the Priory was approved. There Conservative council leader Richard Crumly said that the valuations were to fi nd out information, and no decision had yet been made. Following Monday’s meeting he said: “No doubt views have been expressed in public meetings, but I certainly haven’t
By Adam Flinn
adam@observergroup.co.uk
made up my mind. “The most important thing is to get a valuation of the property before making any decision about the future of the site.” It followed a heated Priory committee meeting last Tuesday, in which Conservative chairman Roger Croft accused the former Liberal Democrat administration of losing “£600,000 of taxpayers money”. Cllr Croft said: “We have come to the conclusion the building will have to be fi nished, as the cost of cancelling would be horrific. “We would like to get a formal valuation to fi nd out how much value has been destroyed. “The previous administration will have done a fi ne job of losing £600,000 of taxpayers money.” The committee discussed three options for the Priory at Tuesday’s meeting: completing the restoration and keeping the building, completing the restoration and selling the building, and cancelling the contract altogether. Lee Dillon, leader of the Liberal Democrats on the town council, thinks that the Priory should be completed and kept as a public building. • Continues on page 3
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