Grand plans to improve the historic area around Spalding parish church are being discussed.
Vicar John Bennett wants to see better use of The Vista, creating more open views of St Mary and St Nicolas Church and Ayscoughfee Hall.
He is proposing a new, smaller and fit-for-purpose church hall, likely to cost between £500,000 and £1million.
And he believes a collaboration with Spalding Gentlemen’s Society to house its impressive and important artefacts would be a perfect fit.
Rev Bennett has canvassed support from South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes, telling him: “My vision would be to make new buildings for the Gentlemen’s Society the heart of The Vista regeneration with a mixture of housing, specialist shops and cafes around it.
“Along with Ayscoughfee Hall and the church, it would create a more attractive area of the town for residents and for visitors.”
The Gentlemen’s Society’s premises in Broad Street has subsidence and accessibility issues and St Nicolas Hall has been running at a loss for a number of years.
Custom has further diminished through anti-social behaviour and vandalism problems in The Vista, although a recent dispersal order enforced by police has improved that situation.
Rev Bennett said: “The church hall is a big building which is expensive to heat and there are more modern, more comfortable and perhaps cheaper alternatives available.”
He told parishioners: ”There are no easy options. If we decide to do nothing, the church will have to raise £11,000 a year to keep the hall going as it is.
“We do not have the money to demolish the hall and to build a new one. If we decide that is eventually what we want to do, then we will have to set ourselves the aim of raising that money over a number of years.”
The thatched Ye Olde White Horse and Crystal Inn restaurant are architectural highlights of the area but Rev Bennett dislikes incongruous buildings such as the derelict Bull and Monkie pub and Lincolnshire County Council’s offices, which cropped up after the demolition of Holyrood House in 1959.
He said: “There are also some nice Georgian buildings on the other side of the river and these 1960s buildings just don’t fit in with them.
“Somebody with a bit of imagination and a lot of money could make something very nice.
“There’s the opportunity for a commercial element too.”
South Holland District Council recently served Crispen Holdings Ltd, the owner of the Bull and Monkie site, with a notice to clear it up by the end of October.
A discussion on Rev Bennett’s proposals will be held by the Parochial Church Council on Monday, September 29.
