28/03/2023
Because of gossips and some untruths, I wanted to give an update on plans at Viktoria Moda in St Georges Church, you may have noticed I was closed for a few months, I was not well and had to take some time to recover.
If we go back to February 2021, when I first acquired St George’s Church there was initial opposition from Cheshire Planning to a change of use from a place of worship to a retail unit. I delayed opening and invested £7,000 in additional submissions to achieve the needed change of use, why does a simple application, that can only be positive in the community, require expensive professional
reports? It seems that unless you have money you can’t achieve your plans.
I was making an effort to employ new people and pass on my skills but had an unfortunate experience in trying to recruit and find a trainee who was keen to learn, it did not go as planned and after an unpleasant experience with the employment tribunal I was left feeling very abused. It appears that employees can lie, cause damage and then take no responsibility, all they have to do is
turn up and you have to pay them. There appears to be a lack of justice for the small business.
The building requires a lot of work, it would not be the first time that a church needs a new roof, or windows, this one is no different, plus electrical rewiring and a heating system– this is an extremely
expensive place to heat at over 250 square meters and we are all feeling the increased cost of utilities.
I had hoped to gain a place to live in the building whilst at the same time protecting the structure and making it watertight. A planning application was made to put a flat in the roof space, but
because the plan changes the roofline with the dormers needed to create an open space and the building is on the local list as a building of interest this was not approved. For me the investment in a new roof, without a return, is just not feasible and the cost of fighting the local authorities is just too much. Instead with no investment the building will only deteriorate until such time as funds are available. Plans to open the main hall will have to be put on hold until the business can make enough money to meet all of these needs. I have spent all of my profits and more in the last two years just to keep the building open, I still aim to achieve so much more with this building, but these experiences keep putting me down.
