Furniture store aids charity

A flagship furniture store for Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance is to be opened in Newark.

The charity shop will operate from empty premises on Queen’s Road. It was a pine workshop and salesroom before being used as a gym.

Newark and Sherwood District Council planning committee has agreed a change of use for the building from a gym to retail and the storage of furniture, along with an office.

There was concern there could be traffic problems caused by vehicles loading and unloading furniture and the matter was deferred from October to see if better accesscould be sorted out.

A garage opposite, Malcolm Peet Ltd, has agreed the charity can rent parking spaces where furniture vans could park.

The Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance shops co-ordinator, Miss Cadi Lambert, said she was delighted the project could go ahead.

She said the shop would not be ready until the new year but they were already looking for volunteers and donations of good quality furniture.

She expected there would be no more than three visits a day by furniture vans and they would not arrive or depart before 10am or after 3pm to avoid times when traffic was at its heaviest.

Miss Lambert said members of the public would not be allowed to stop and drop off furniture at the shop as it would be collected to enable them to check the condition of each item before it was accepted.

She said one of the reasons Newark had been chosen was because of its central position in the two counties the air ambulance served.

“Another reason is the large amount of public support we receive from the area, particularly from groups such as the Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance Countryside Appeal.

“I would love to see that support being nurtured and expanded and feel this store would be an ideal way of achieving this.”

Mr Tom Bickley said the application should be approved. He said the building was going downhill and he wanted to see it in back in use.

The director of growth, Mr Colin Walker, recommended refusal because the charity had not provided adequate servicing arrangements, which could increase the danger to other road users because vehicles would have to manoeuvre on to Queen’s Road.

l RIGHT: The former pine shop on Queen’s Road.