A NEW community centre will be given a Royal seal of approval, it has been announced.The Princess Royal will visit Aldeburgh on April 5 to open officially the centre in the former electricity generator building at King's Field.

By Richard Smith

A NEW community centre will be given a Royal seal of approval, it has been announced.

The Princess Royal will visit Aldeburgh on April 5 to open officially the centre in the former electricity generator building at King's Field.

The centre opened last year at a cost in the region of £400,000. The 90-year-old building had been largely unused for more than 60 years and it was given a new lease of life in the town's biggest civic venture for at least 25 years when it was adopted as Aldeburgh's official millennium project.

It includes a car park, facilities for disabled people, a store room, large hall, toilets, bar, changing rooms and a mezzanine floor for meetings.

The uses include adult education courses, mother and toddler groups, satellite information services and changing facilities for sports people using the adjacent field. The internal layout has been constructed to give flexibility for a variety of uses.

Hugo Herbert-Jones, chairman of the Aldeburgh Community and Sports Trust, said yesterday: “We are delighted and very honoured to be receiving a visit from the Princess Royal and we are thrilled that she is opening the place.

“She will tour the premises and meet some of the prime movers and, in the space of 30 to 45 minutes, she will be able to see what we have achieved in the last 10 years.”

A few residents living near the centre have expressed concerns about noise and light pollution, and a licensing hearing is scheduled for March 5 when Suffolk Coastal District Council will consider these problems.

In the meantime the trust is able to apply for temporary event notices to cover the bookings that have been made while it awaits the granting of a Premises Licence.

The trustees are considering possible measures to counter the problems including the installation of window blinds.

The Princess Royal, patron and honorary member of the Suffolk Horse Society, will also visit the Suffolk Punch stud farm at Hollesley, near Woodbridge.

She will be briefed on the latest developments at the stud, which was owned by the Prison Service before it was sold to the Suffolk Punch Trust nearly a year ago.

It costs about £90,000 annually to run the stud and the trustees are aiming to raise £1.4million to build a new access road, car and coach parking, a visitor centre and to refurbish the stables and walkways.

richard.smith@eadt.co.uk