Negotiations underway for Leamington’s Bath Place

Following a change in the law, the venture - which is currently based at Althorpe Street - recently applied to Warwick District Council to nominate it as an ‘asset of community value’, which would mean that it would be given six months to raise funds to re-develop its former site in Bath Place when the building goes up for sale.

That nomination has been approved by both the district council and Leamington Town Council - and now the organisation is hoping to persuade Warwickshire County Council, which owns the building, to lease it rather than put it up for sale.

The building has been derelict since it was gutted in a fire four years ago.

Site supervisor Clayton Denwood said: “From 1988 to 2008, the county council invested £1.5 million in Bath Place. We are trying to re-negotiate the council as a partner.

“Before the fire, we had been based there since 1974.”