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Project Pegasus Update

A special meeting of Bench Table took place on 21st October 2015 to discuss recommendations to redevelop the Treasury Building (Project Pegasus) to create additional space for Education & Training activities and for commercial hire.

Governing Benchers were then invited to vote on whether there should be any building development of the Treasury Building and if so which of the building options (scheme 1, 1.5 or 2) should be selected. The Library Committee supported scheme 1.

A majority of Benchers voted in favour of redevelopment, and Scheme 2 obtained more than 50% of the votes.

In a notice to members and tenants the Treasurer has said

Education and Training, both of students and barristers, is a core function of the Inn and there is a recognised need to ensure that our facilities meet the demands of modern legal education. The development option approved by Governing Benchers will ensure that the Inn is able to fulfil its educational function by providing modern purpose built facilities, including an auditorium and training rooms, to match the world class training which we already deliver.

The Inn fully accepts that in creating these new facilities we must ensure that the Library is able to continue to deliver all its core services, so that the Inn’s members continue to have access to our collection and receive the highly valued assistance of our library team.

An application has been received by Historic England asking it to recommend to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport that the Treasury Building as a whole be listed. Historic England is now in the process of considering that application and the deadline for comments is Friday 4th December 2015. A recommendation to the Secretary of State will then be made. It is anticipated that it will take some time for the Secretary of State to make a decision. The Inn will not be making any planning application for Project Pegasus until a decision on listing has been made.

The Michaelmas Term issue of InnerView, the Inn’s Newsletter, includes a piece on the Inn’s building proposals entitled Project Pegasus: Redevelopment of the Inn’s Estate (page 4).