Towards the end of last year, as the Mountsorrel Memorial Centre was about to open its doors, an estate agent’s sign was displayed on the protective barriers on the car park boundary. The sign announced that 3 new retail units were to become available in 2018. I (Steve) enquired as to price and was immediately put off by the lease cost and that they were only a shell and would need fitting out from floor to ceiling and wall to wall.
I forgot about it then until I went in one day in March to have a word with Chris Reeves, who I knew had been appointed manager of the centre. I knew Chris from his days at The Waterside with Sue Roberts. I wanted Chris to provide the PA system for Bill Ford’s Book Launch that I was organising to take place at Rothley Court on May 1st.
Chris told me that the lease price on the units had been reduced and that the café had been let to Peppercorns. He showed me inside one of the units, and my imagination kicked into gear as I really could see us moving in there and developing the retail, public community and contact side of Soar Valley Life. I got in touch again with the estate agent mentioning that I believed we could help to promote the centre and its activities and that our business would fit very well into one of the units.
I then met with Steve Heywood from Mountsorrel Council who manage the centre on behalf of the Mountsorrel War Memorial Trust.
There followed a good deal of correspondence between us culminating in a draft lease being sent to us. There are 25 pages in the document and more than 200 clauses. We needed a solicitor to interpret it.
We now had to invest some serious money to move forward. Mary and I both realised that this was a very big decision for our little business. We deliberated for a fortnight – we knew that this was our Rubicon – our point of no return…
We have crossed that metaphorical river now and, God willing, our next edition will be published from our new home, the other side of our little river valley. Will we reign as long as Caesar did I wonder?
Steve & Mary Johns
