 ORIYI News - September 2002 |
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3 - Sarva - A Place of our own.
To have your own space in which to teach yoga must be the dream of many yoga teachers. The freedom of not having to book the space, not having to pack away to accommodate other users, to be able to have all the equipment you require ready to hand and knowing no one else will disturb it, and best of all - no one walking through the space with shoes on! This dream has almost become a reality for Sheila Haswell, a senior Iyengar yoga teacher in Buckinghamshire. Sheila has been practising yoga for some 28 years and has been teaching for over 18. As it is for her Mum, Lillian Biggs, yoga is a major part of Sheila’s life, and to have her own studio could be said to be a lifelong ambition. However it is not easy to go it alone: many of the Centres and Institutes around the country have come about through group effort. I met Sheila through a friend of mine, who was looking for a yoga class for us both and had Sheila’s class recommended to her by her osteopath. Sheila and I soon became friends and it was as a result of our growing friendship that the idea of our going into business together came about. I had recently started teaching Beauty Therapy at the local college but was really looking to update my holistic therapy skills and go back into practice, as I missed the contact with the clients. Although I must say, I do enjoy the interaction with the students. We started looking for suitable premises in the spring of 2001. We were looking for somewhere to rent, as buying was not an option for either of us. We finally found a suitable building in November of that year. An office building which had stood empty for six years, which had an open plan room ideal for yoga as well as another that would be suitable as a remedial yoga room, and enough space for my therapy room, an office plus changing and storage areas. And best of all it has its own parking! Perfect. The landlord was desperate to let the space and we were eager to get in. All we needed was “change of use” from the Council. All of us believed this would be a formality and take no more than eight weeks – we thought wrong! Firstly they decided to refuse us change of use as we would be “denying employment opportunities in the town” by taking away office space. The day after we received this shattering piece of news Sheila and I walked from ‘our’ building into High Wycombe and took photographs of 30 empty offices comprising over 250,000 Sq. ft. in any shape and size you could possibly wish for. Thankfully we sent all this to the council in time to stop their decision from being made final and the matter was referred to the Planning Committee. It was by now February; the committee was due to sit in the first week of March. We had two weeks to prime our local councillors and get them on-side. The meeting was harrowing, our application was the last on the agenda and we sat through an agonising discussion on the merits of our case, not being able to say anything. Thankfully they overturned the original decision unanimously. But our troubles were not over. Our next hurdle was something the officer at the planning department had decided not to tell us about, as he thought our application was ‘dead in the water’. Any property which is granted change of use becomes subject to the current planning laws with regard to traffic flow and access. Our building’s entrance was too narrow by current standards, so they wanted us to widen the entrance to provide sufficient visibility splays, widen the drive to accommodate a two-way flow of traffic and provide a turning circle. None of this was practical without utilising our neighbour’s property or knocking down the building itself – and bear in mind we can only have a lease for five years at a time, as this is a sub-let! Again the Council wanted to refuse change of use, again we managed to stop the decision being made by talking to the people in the Highways department and proposing a one way system utilising the access to our site via the industrial estate to the rear and installing drop down metal plates to enforce this. After a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing and finally locating some plates which Environmental Health were happy with from a noise point of view, they conceded change of use. All we had to do now was make a compulsory contribution to the transport strategy of the town for the increase in traffic our business would generate to the tune of almost £6,000 and we were away. Never mind the rent deposit, the rent in advance and the refurbishment costs, the solicitor’s fees, the accountant’s fees, the surveyor’s fees, the bank's fees – need I go on! Thankfully throughout all of this both the Estate Agent and the landlord have been working very hard to help us out and get us in. The landlord has been very generous and at the time of writing this (mid August) we should be signing the lease today. We are very hopeful that we will be able to start a full programme of classes from September. We are also very grateful to all those people who have helped us along the way with their encouragement, suggestions and in some cases financial support. Without them this would have remained no more than a dream. There are many other minor details and hurdles which I could impart but I think I should save all that for the book and/or film version of this saga!! We’ve made it, nine moths after we first saw the building and 18 months after we first started to dream together. Best of all, throughout all of this, we have had each other, when one was down the other was up. We have kept each other focused and our dream alive – and that’s why as its says in the song “it takes two, baby”. Ally Hill P.S. Sarva, the name of our business, is Sanskrit for whole, complete. P.P.S. I start my yoga teacher training this September (wish me luck). If you would like any information about classes or therapy treatments available at Sarva please send your name, address and phone number to Sarva Limited, First Floor 161 West Wycombe Road, High Wycombe, Bucks HP12 3AB. Tel. 01494 521107, Fax 01494 521108. We will include you on our database and that way you will receive regular updates about classes, treatments and events. |