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Having been a big part of our wonderful Maidenhead community since 1967, we were unbelievably saddened when we were told by one of the Directors of Areli, in October 2019 that they did not want us to be part of the new build, nor would we be granted a late licence in the new development. We still have no idea why, in a site of 4.5 acres they have chosen not to re-provide this protected community space. Up to 2000 local people of all ages pass through our doors on a weekly basis, and we have fantastic links with the Police and Licensing authorities. As a last resort, we contacted Cllr Andrew Johnson, and he put us in touch with the Maidenhead Property Company who made contact with us late last year.
They suggested space in the new Council owned Car Park, but sadly don’t seem to be able to achieve provision of an open air space suitable for use as a smoking area. A smoking area is an imperative for a venue of our capacity, people like a break out area, to have a chill place to talk, vape and for some to smoke, in a secure area, covered by security, without having to leave the premises and mingle outside with other members of the public.
This could have been avoided, and we did lobby very hard for the 9 Planning Panel members to ask for the re-provision of the space to be conditioned as part of the planning permission, but this was ignored.
The Local Area Action Plan Policy MTC13 calls for community spaces like this to be re-provisioned, in our view it was tragic for the local community that they did not see fit to do so.
There is no other late licenced venue in Maidenhead, and there is no other Entertainment venue that has the capacity to support nationally well-known artists.
A small town like Maidenhead has a venue that gets mentioned on the James Corden show, and they not only want to knock it down, but they don’t re-provide it. So for the Music lovers, and the LGBTQ night attendees, and all the local sports clubs and charities who have used The Silver Skillet, Smokey Joes, and Smokey’s over the last 50 years, we will be back open on June 25th, and we will fight this as far as we can. The local night life might not be important to the 9 Local Councillors who signed its death warrant, but the support from our customers has been overwhelming, and humbling.