Nursery World - Case study (20)

With years of experience in sales management, Sarah Whiteside wanted to set up her own business in a service-based industry. Her 34-place Chethams nursery in Bury opened its doors a year ago. 'I bought an end-of-terrace private house and had it renovated and converted to create Chethams,' Sarah says. 'My plans were drawn up by an architect, who also managed the building project, and then I put them into the planning department.

'I bought an end-of-terrace private house and had it renovated and converted to create Chethams,' Sarah says. 'My plans were drawn up by an architect, who also managed the building project, and then I put them into the planning department.

'It was a very long process as I had to get the local council to agree to a change of use. Then someone tried to gazump me and I had to pay the owner more money. I reckon the whole process took 12 months from viewing the building to getting planning permission.

'The changes were quite extensive. We had to build a road at the side of the property so that we could have parking. The land was at all sorts of different levels so we had to have some of the ground removed. We also needed grassed and hard areas for the children to play on.

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