Published Wednesday 14 August 2024 at 17:00
Blackburn with Darwen Council has today taken action to prevent the former St Mary’s College building from being used for functions and celebration events – an unauthorised change of use.
Following complaints from residents living in the Shear Brow area, the Council has:
- Served a Temporary Stop Notice on the owners of the site, the Issa Foundation, and the leaseholders of the site, Inara Events Ltd.
This notice is for a breach of planning control with planning permission not being secured for a change of use for the building to allow functions and celebration events to be held there.
The stop notice is effective immediately and prevents the buildings from being used for such events.
This notice will be in place until September 11th, 2024.
A planning application will be required for a change of use to be considered.
The Foundation and Inara Events Ltd could be prosecuted if they fail to comply with the Temporary Stop Notice.
- The leaseholder, Inara Events Ltd, has also been issued a Community Protection Notice Warning letter.
This states that the business must take reasonable steps to ensure that its customers do not cause excessive noise – including drumming, shouting and singing.
Reasonable steps must also be taken to control customer parking to ensure that no nuisance is caused to residents and no danger is caused to pedestrians and other road users.
Failure to comply with the Community Protection Warning will result in a Community Protection Notice being issued. Failure to comply with that could lead to prosecution/fine.
Following events at the weekend, the Council received complaints about excessive noise and dangerous parking outside the venue.
A spokesperson for Blackburn with Darwen Council said:
“Enforcement action has today been taken to prevent the former St Mary’s College building from being used for functions and celebration events.
“The building does not have the required planning permission in place to be used for that purpose and so a Temporary Stop Notice has been served as well as a Community Protection Notice warning letter.
“Following events at the weekend, we received complaints from residents in the area, including around noise and dangerous parking.
“We appreciate that this action will sadly impact on families who may have events planned there in the coming weeks, but the safety and amenity of all of our residents and visitors is our priority, and venues like this cannot be allowed to operate without the required permissions.”
Even after the Temporary Stop Notice expires, the venue will not be allowed to operate without the necessary planning permissions in place.
Anyone with events planned at the former St Mary’s building should contact the organisers directly.