THE TOP floor of a Petersfield venue looks set to become a temporary home and storage area for the town’s museum.
Councillors have welcomed a request from trustees to lease the office space on the first floor of Petersfield Town Hall.
Museum trustees approached Petersfield Town Council (PTC) as they will need a sizeable space to store their large collection of artefacts when their £2.6m conversion project begins.
“We need something from December onwards and we could use all that area upstairs,” Bill Gosney, who is lead trustee for the museum’s Pathways to the Past project, told councillors at a recent meeting.
“We need a warehouse but the conditions have to be right with humidity and temperature controls.
“We monitor the artefacts all the time and having them here means we can keep a really good eye on them.”
The request came around 30 minutes after Annabel Boys presented plans to set up a yoga studio and wellness centre in the same place.
She told members of the Pubic Halls Committee that Petersfield was the perfect place as the nearest facilities are in Godalming, Chichester and Southsea.
She said: “Yoga and wellness is a big growth area and Facebook reckons there are 23,000 people in the Petersfield area interested in yoga and pilates.”
Ms Boys was seeking a two-year lease but councillors had slight concerns about access and security. Her presentation, plus the request from museum trustees, left councillors with a difficult choice but all opted for the latter.
“It would give the museum a chance to work out where everything needs to be and gives an income,” said Councillor Mary Vincent.