The Stables at Wavendon, under threat

A lot of us will know of and will have enjoyed visits to The Stables at Wavendon nr Milton Keynes, set up 50 years ago by Cleo Laine and John Dankworth. It’s a great venue, and as well as being a music venue it houses the National Youth Music Camp and runs numerous projects that introduce children to music.

It’s under threat. Abbey Homes want to build up to its boundary, the potential for future residents to complain about the noise is clear and it could lead to The Stables’ closure. The clipping below from Private Eye summarises it better than I ever could, and The Stables own web site details it here https://stables.org/news/proposed-housing-development-goes-to-appeal. In short, Abbey Homes are using tenuous legal means to keep the legal challenge going in the knowledge that The Stables will run out of funds sooner not later, esp given that the current virus has put a block on any income for the time being.

If this sort of thing irks you as much as it does me, pls consider contributing to the appeal fund.
Thanks to Private Eye for picking this up and publicising it. Buy The Eye too if you can.

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Thanks for this - I hadn’t heard about this but I no longer get the local paper and only buy PE intermittently. MK can’t afford to lose the Stables!

Actually, The Stables is suffering on two fronts, this and the fact that they as they have no funding from gigs they are struggling to keep the building going. They have had a crowdfunding appeal for the second (which I contributed to) which I understand has reached their target, however until it reopens it may continue to rely on such donations.

The Abbey Homes application is a tough one as again houses are needed. Everyone buying a new house there will be aware of the Stables and its function but that doesn’t mean like those that complain about church bells or the dawn chorus that complaints won’t be made about the Stables. Hopefully the planning consent to Abbey Homes can make it explicit that the Stables will continue and that no objection on the basis of the function of the Stables will be accepted. Abbey Homes should also be forced with a planning condition to solve the problem of noise if it might be an issue to their development, with sound barriers etc.

We certainly must not lose the Stables.

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