Work begins to repair ‘eyesore’ building in Grantham, formerly Barkers Cafe, after notice issued by South Kesteven District Council

Work has started to repair a town ‘eyesore’.

In April, the owners of the building in Vine Street, Grantham, formerly Barkers Cafe, were issued with a Section 215 notice by South Kesteven District Council.

Repairs have now started on the building, which was considered an “eyesore” by residents.

Coun Tim Harrison (Ind, Grantham St Wulfram’s), who helped to get the notice issued, said: “It was great to hear that a skip had arrived on site and that work had started to progress.

“This is in a main gateway into the town and has sadly been left to fall into disrepair.

“The assistant director of planning and her team have jumped through a lot of legal hoops to get this far.

“The general opinion of the public is it can just be enforced but sadly that is not the case and everything has to follow full legal diligence and certain processes all of which take time.

“So I’d like to give a big thank you to the director for making it happen. I have been assured they will monitor that progress is satisfactory.”

The owners, who are not listed on the land registry, were told by SKDC to carry out a number of repairs by mid-August.

These included:

• Remove the temporary weatherproofing materials - including plastic sheets and battens - from the front of the building.

• Re-mortar all stonework on the front where necessary with a lime-based mortar.

• Repair all timber framework on the front including doors, windows and timber beam above the ground floor framework and paint it to match the existing paintwork. Also, where the timber needs to be replaced, it needs to be the same type of timber.

• Render the building with a lime-based render to restore the front of the building to its original state and paint the render to match the existing paintwork.

• Remove all rubble and building materials from the front, including wood, stone, brick, glass, electrical appliances, insulation, roofing material, fencing, and plastic waste.

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