LATEST NEWS - 26th April 2010
The Last Time The Hall was Re-built
Readers might like to find out about an earlier rebuilding of the Village
Hall...please click
here. There are some distinct similarities between each re-building-
bad weather, grant applications...and quite a lot of teamwork!
____________________________________________
16th
April 2010
Good news! The Village Hall re-opened to
users on the 1st April. After the handing over of the keys to Village Hall
Management Committee and Parish Council representatives, Chris Edwards and
Les Barclay, and a full briefing to members of the Village Hall Management
Committee as to the operation of the Hall including the new boilers,
security and power supply and other facilities and services, the Hall is
finally back in use. The first users were the aerobics group who started
up again that evening and were delighted with the new facilities. Other
users are now returning including the Parish Council who were glad to be
back in the village for monthly meetings after a period in exile in
Purleigh.
The contractor is working hard to hand over
the new rooms and entrance hall on 4th May and at the time of writing is
on programme. With the Annual Public Meeting of the Parish Council being
held in the Village Hall on 5th May and with the Hall to be used as a
polling station for the General Election on 6th May everyone will have an
early opportunity to visit the Hall and see the new facilities very
quickly after handover. The Village Hall Management Committee is running
an Opening Event on 15th May, see details elsewhere for what promises to
be a good event.
The Project Team have taken a number of
decisons during the course of the Project to carry out additional repair
and maintenance works including refurbishing and re-lining the main hall
floor, replacing failing gutters and downpipes and carrrying out some high
level repairs and redocorations all of which should save the Village Hall
Management Committee considerable maintenance costs into the future.
Do take a look at the "new" Village Hall,
it's there for all of us to use and now offers some great local facilities
for anyone wanting to run an event or simply to turn up and enjoy
participating with one of the user groups in the best accommodation we've
ever been able to offer.
Please contact Philip Wakeling (01621
828244) for information about the Project or Chris Edwards (number
elsewhere in the Beacon) for booking information.
Philip Wakeling
____________________________________________
3rd
April 2010
Les Barclay on behalf of the
Parish Council and Chris Edwards on behalf of the Village Hall Management
Committee accept the keys to the newly refurbished village hall from the
builder, Haynes and Smith. The Village Hall is open for business again;
first users were the Aerobics Group who "thought it looked great!"
Philip Wakeling
____________________________________________
19th March 2010
It's official! Following the Project
Meeting on the 18th March we can now, at last, confirm that the Hall will
re-open for users on the 1st April. The builders will still be completing
their work in the new extension but the refurbished "old" hall, toilets,
and kitchen areas will be available for use which should enable most if
not all users to return to Cold Norton. Access, temporarily, will be via
the side door to the main hall via the playing field across the newly made
up, wheelchair and pram friendly path. The Project is expected to finally
complete on 3rd May.
A meeting to hand the Hall back to the
Village Hall Management Committee has been arranged for the 1st April
together with a teach in covering the operation of the new energy
efficient condensing boiler, the electricity control panel and security
arrangements and everything else necessary to ensure a smooth handover and
running.
Paul Guppy and Philip Wakeling inspected
the Hall after the Project Meeting and were very pleased with the way the
Hall is now looking and with the new facilities. The Parish Council is
planning to arrange a viewing of the Hall from 7.30, prior to the Parish
Council Meeting on 14th April. The Annual Public Meeting of the Parish
Council in May, and we suspect the forthcoming General Election, will also
provide a great opportunity to take a look at the new facilities. We very
much hope that you will be pleased with the end result. Please contact the
Village Hall Management Committee, contact details in the back of the
Beacon for booking information.
More next month. In the meantime, please
contact Philip wakeling (01621 828244) should you need any further
information.
Philip Wakeling
____________________________________________
6th March 2010
The new entrance hall and committee rooms
in March- taking shape!
View of the side of the village hall
showing the new windows, doors and extension:
Please click on the pictures to see larger
versions.
Philip Wakeling
____________________________________________
19th February
2010
In spite of the continuing bad weather the
Village Hall project is progressing well. The main hall area will be
handed back to village hall users from 1st April with the entire project
now expected to complete in early May- which will enable the Hall to be
used as a Polling Station if Mr. Brown calls the election for 6th May!
The Project Team are making small adjustments to the specification as the
job progresses and as funds allow to make sure that we have the best
possible result on completion. For instance, more internal doors are to be
renewed to improve the appearance, the original gutters are now to be
overhauled to cut maintenance in the future and we have just instructed a
re-furbishment of the main hall floor.
The
new Committee rooms are to be named the St.Stephens Room, the Beacon Room
and the Norton Room respectively and will provide some great new space for
user groups more of which will be able to occupy simultaneously. Please
contact the Village Hall Management Committee for booking information.
The
architect is preparing a "Donor Board" which will be displayed in the new
entrance hall showing the names of the groups who provided grant funding
including the National Lottery, Essex County Council, Maldon District
Council, Garfield Weston, Exxon Mobil plus the names of all those people
who bought bricks. In addition, the Village Hall Management Committee
provided over £24,000 from fund raising over the past few years whilst the
Parish Council has committed £20,000 to the project.
Paul Guppy, Chris Edwards and Philip Wakeling carried out a site
inspection on Friday 19th February and were pleased to see the finished
product begining to emerge. The newly plastered and decorated main hall
looks much lighter, helped by the new windows and doors. Also the old,
noisy heaters have gone to be replaced by new, much quieter and more
efficient units powered by a new condensing boiler. The new wcs located
off the hall mainly for the use of pre-school are now effectively complete
and are looking good. They will enable pre-school to be self-contained in
the hall whilst other events occur elsewhere. The new committee rooms are
now almost roofed in and will complete after the main hall is back in use
in April.
The
project has been featured latterly in the Essex Chronicle and will shortly
appear in an article in "The Oyster", the magazine of the Rural Community
Council of Essex who provided much useful advise in the early days of
grant applications.
Philip Wakeling
____________________________________________
15th January
2010
The project is proceeding positvely and
from a site inspection after Christmas we had the first impression of what
the new hall will look like with walls and ceilings re-plastered, new,
more efficient and quiter heating and new lighting. That's the good news!
The not so good news is that due to a combination of a hitch with the hall
ceiling, since resolved, and the weather the programme has slipped. We now
expect the Hall to re-open at the end of April.
The main hall area will be complete in February however due to access
difficulties and lack of car parking it was decided at a meeting of the
Village Hall Management Committee to wait until final completion before
re-occupying.
Financially the project remains on track with the Lottery now having made
three substantial payments towards the construction cost and our other
donor's funds also now being tapped. Our thanks to all the groups and
individuals who have contributed. Their names will be noted on a plaque to
be placed inside the new entrance area, which on cost grounds replaces the
buy a brick scheme.
The Village Hall Management Committee has decided to hold most hring rates
at the old rates which users were used to paying and are now
enthusiastically looking for additional occupiers. If you run a group
looking for a regular venue offering great facilities or wish to start up
a new group or club in the Village please contact the Village Hall
Management Committee.
Philip Wakeling
____________________________________________
8th December
2009
The project to extend and refurbish the
Village Hall unfortunately hit problems almost from the off as when
excavating the footings for the new meeting and reception areas the
contractor found asbestos. We think that the material found probably arose
from the demolition of the original village hall and, given the current
regulations, the material had to be analysed and eventuallly removed with
a large quantity of contaminated spoil to a safe disposal location.
Inevitabley this cost a lot of money however both our own Project Team and
the Lottery having re-run the figures are of the view that the project
remains viable.
One consequence of the early loss of the
project contingency sum is that some additional works to which we have not
yet committed, including the construction of an outdoor children's play
area for pre-school children and the making up of the road in the vicinity
of the Village Hall may not now proceed. Decisions will be taken in the
new year subject to funding.
The good news is, however, that although
the project is now two weeks behind largely because of the effects of
dealing with asbestos removal, the Village Hall Management Committee
expect to take possession of the Main Hall from the contractor on 15th
January. A number of user groups are very keen to resume activities again
in Cold Norton after a few months away and the VHMC are also now
considering how to expand the use of the Hall and make full use of the new
and improved facilities following final completion in April.
The Village Hall Project Group wish to
acknowledge and thank all those who have contributed financially to the
project to date including the Big Lottery, Garfield Weston, Essex County
Council, Maldon District Council, Cold Norton Parish Council, the Village
Hall Management Committe and of course many members of the public. We plan
to install a plaque recognising finacial contributions to the project but
wish to point out that the cost of installing personalised bricks is
likely to more or less use the proceeds of "buying a brick". This seems
counter-productive and we are considering some other form of
acknowledgement. We trust this is in order but if you have any concerns
please make contact using the 'Contact' button above left.
Philip Wakeling
____________________________________________
30th November 2009
The Parish Council approved the Project and it's contribution by way of a
£20,000 loan from the Public Works Board. This was subject to Lottery and VAT
approval. We are delighted to announce that the Big Lottery Fund have now given their approval, having reviewed the
proposed scheme, the tender report and the Parish Council's matched
funding proposals.
Tenders were received from a number of potential
suppliers and the contract for the work has now been awarded to
Haynes and
Smith.
-
As at
the end of October, the project is delayed by about 4 days. At this
stage this is not material. The first phase including the completion of
the works to the main hall will complete in January with final
completion due in April
-
Asbestos has been found in some quantity in the excavations around the
VH. This is having to be shipped away to a suitable site for disposal
hence the contingency is effectively gone. As a result we don't have any
alternative at this stage but to put the outside play area and making up
of the road on hold. We will review further as the project progresses
- The pre-school group
are considering external funding to make the outside play area feasible
- The VH Management
Committee are considering the Lottery milestones to improve access and
use of the hall to all groups following completion
- Views are being sought
re: placing a time capsule under the new extension
For a view of what the finished development
will look like please click on the picture below:
