A MAIDENHEAD nightclub has been offered a new home in the redeveloped Nicholson Centre after fears of being left in limbo.

After plans to redevelop the Nicholson’s shopping centre was approved last month, Owners of Smokeys, in Nicholson Lane, raised concerns no new home with suitable space was found for them.

In a Facebook post last week, Smokeys, which has been closed due to Covid-19, said they would fight the potential use of a compulsory purchase order, which forces property owners to sell up, in court after senior councillors agreed to allow the developers to use this power if negotiations stall.

However, at a Maidenhead Town Forum last Wednesday, March 31, Barbara Richardson, managing director of the council’s property company, announced the nightclub has been “offered some space” within the ground-floor of the proposed Broadway multi-storey car park.

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The carpark is owned by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council.

She also said the developers, Denhead S.A.R.L. have offered to cover the capital cost of fitting out that space for the nightclub on the same specification they currently have.

Two outstanding agreements are yet to be reached by both parties, which includes whether the new Smokey’s site can house a smoking area, so users don’t have to keep coming in and out of security to be able to smoke.

Mrs Richardson said: “Within the underground element of the carpark, we’re trying to see through the licensing authority whether or not a winter garden effect that’s secure would be suitable and whether that meets the right regulation in relation to people still being able to smoke there.”

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Another agreement that hasn’t been reached yet is to what the actual space will look like.

Barbara Richardson added: “I think that’s the easiest one to negotiate and agree on.

“I think the one that is the really difficult one, which the owners of Smokeys have always said is really important to them and the most difficult is just being able to cater for an area that’s deemed enclosed where people can smoke without leaving the premises and coming back in again.”