Dear All:

I'm afraid that I have extremely bad news for everyone.

The Operational Management Plan was approved behind our backs and without our knowledge.

"The Operational Management Plan — the document that governs in precise detail how this Centre will operate, the hours of every category of event, exit routes, noise management, and the terms under which our neighbourhood will be affected night after night — was formally approved on 4 June 2026 , under delegated officer authority, with no conditions attached. It went through three revisions between March and May of this year. 

Statutory public consultation is not legally required for an approval of details application. But the Council and the Centre had every opportunity to consult residents voluntarily on a document of this consequence, and chose not to. At no point were we notified, informed, or invited to comment. This is not a minor procedural matter. This is a document of profound and lasting importance to the people living here, finalised without us, before we were given the chance to speak."

The decision was signed off by Sarah Scannell, Service Director — Planning and Development. This was not a junior officer decision. It went to the top of the planning department.

The Application Target date was 30 April 2026 — meaning the council set itself a deadline of 30 April to decide this, yet the decision was not issued until 4 June 2026, 35 days past its own target date. During those 35 days, Revision 3 of the OMP was submitted on 27 May — just eight days before approval. The decision notice is addressed to Tim Ronalds Architects, not to residents or any community stakeholder.

The only issues that are still up for discussion - as far as I understand - at the 7 July Planning Meeting are these:

- The first is bank holiday openings. The original permission had bank holidays closed. The S73 seeks to open on all bank holidays except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. This community needs known, reliable days of rest from the footfall and activity the Centre brings.
- The second is the proposal to exempt daytime private hires on Mondays and Tuesdays from the existing cap of twenty-four events per year. The S73 seeks to clarify that the cap applies only to evening events between 6pm and 10:30pm — meaning daytime private hires on closed days would be entirely unlimited and uncapped. All private hire events, regardless of the time of day, should count toward the agreed annual limit. To do otherwise renders the cap meaningless.

I'm sorry not to be able to offer any positive suggestions to any of this.  It seems that the Council and the Centre had and have no intention to consider us.

You can access the relevant documents via this link;  if you scroll down to 'documents' you will see the final two documents, approved on 4 June .