Plans to turn a former weekly newspaper office into a Wetherspoon’s pub have moved forward after the pub giant was granted extended opening hours.
HTFP reported earlier this month that the former offices of the Rutland and Stamford Mercury in Sheep Market, Stamford, could be turned into a Wetherspoon’s branch.
The company was granted planning permission earlier this year to turn the offices into a pub but said it may pull out of the town if it was not granted longer opening hours.
JD Wetherspoon is set to invest £1.2m in the new premises and expects to create around 50 jobs.
The Mercury's former office which is set to become a pub.
Journalists from the Johnston Press title moved to a new base at Cherryholt Road in Stamford last month after leaving their former office of many years.
The Mercury reports that at a planning meeting last week, councillors approved an application by Wetherspoon’s to extend the pub’s opening hours to midnight on Sunday to Thursday and to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.
When the pub giant’s initial application was approved, planners from South Kesteven District Council put forward the original opening times to prevent a disturbance to residents in neighbouring buildings.
But Wetherspoon’s successfully argued it should be allowed to have the same opening hours of other pubs in the town centre.
The Mercury is one of many Johnston Press titles to move to new premises over the last year as the company seeks to make its offices “fit for purpose”.
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Pity the neighbours. They appear to be very close by. Is this building ‘fit for purpose’?
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Difficult to see why HTFP is reporting on this. Am I missing something?
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ill-informed: well, yes, you’re missing a story mate. We all want to know what happened to our old stomping grounds.
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To be fair the ‘spoons will employ ten times as many people than the previous incumbent!
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I don’t know about missing the story – isn’t JP missing a trick?
Why not open all its offices as pubs!
A nice steady income and endless stories on tap.
Just change the old strapline to – ‘Life is in your local’.
Kerching! Ash, you can have that one on the house.
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Subbed-up – if it’s of interest then, well, fair enough. I’m just surprised that that’s the case.
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Strange – Wetherspoon’s are typically vast beer sheds. This site doesn’t fit the bill at all. It just shows how desperate this money-grabbing company is to have a site in this generally very prosperous town.
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Trovic Werdlem – FYI
The Mercury offices were originally a car dealership and the main area which formerly housed the Advertising and Editorial teams was one big cavernous space that was the former showroom/workshop.
Not really any residential dwellings nearby, just a few first floor flats which often emitted loud ‘music’ anyway.
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