loves farm

LOVES Farm community centre could be built by the end of the year – despite councillors ordering a redesign of the building.

Councillor Barry Chapman said it may be possible to finish the project in 2013 with St Neots Town Council having the right financial backing.

The town council had been talking to Huntingdonshire District Council about ways to fund the project, but at a meeting held to finalise arrangements, councillors agreed the architects had tried to squeeze too much into a small space.

The town council is talking to several developers over a “back to basics” design taking into account the budget.

Concerns about how the project would be funded were eased slightly at the meeting with the emergence of a potential contribution of £150,000 from Cambridgeshire County Council.

This would take the budget for the development to more than £650,000, with money coming from both town and district councils as well as a sum of £413,000 from housing developers.

Cllr Chapman said: “The meeting was very productive and I think the message is that we need to press on with it.

“I’ve spoken to three developers in the last week about the site and we’re going to go back to basics and asses things in terms of our budget.”