More good progress has been made since last month. We have now passed another milestone by submitting our plans for the village hall to NDDC for planning approval. All being well, we can expect confirmation of their position in July. In the meantime, we now enter a stage of structural and technical design work which will include structural calculations, technical design and a ‘wildlife’ survey; work that is essential to meet planning and building regulations approval before construction work can proceed.
We had some really excellent news from the Lottery, as well. We have been successful in our bid for £7,800 from their Awards for All Fund to meet the cost of the remaining architectural and technical design work. This was a great boost to everyone’s morale. Yes, it seems we are starting to be successful and things are starting to happen.
A very big THANK YOU to everyone who took part in the house-to-house survey. We very much appreciate your time and effort to respond to the questions, to add all your comments and for your offers of support. We are delighted that the survey results show SIGNIFICANT support for our plans and, unsurprisingly, a high degree of dissatisfaction with the current building. Your statements of support demonstrate its potential for becoming a vibrant and attractive community hub. A final report of the results will be made available on the village hall website: www.chittlehamptonvillagehall.co.uk.
The survey results will form an invaluable part of the narrative and justification in our bids to the National Lottery and other funders for sizeable grants to carry out the construction work that will transform those plans into reality. Although we will need planning and building control approval before we can submit the bids, we will start this work now. We are confident that by giving our time, effort, patience and with several slices of disappointment thrown in, we will win the grants that we need to make this all happen.
More good news, this time on the fund-raising front. Since we registered the charity as a CIO last August, you have helped to raise over £1,000/month from our ongoing social and fund-raising events all of which have proved to be very popular. In particular, support for our whist and bingo evenings remains very strong. We can now look forward to the Garden Show and Fete in August, and don’t forget another newly introduced Ceilidh dance event on 30th June. The first one was really good fun and places are limited.
Thank you to all for your continued support.
Chittlehampton Village Hall Trustees
