Our initial bat survey has confirmed that we may have bats roosting in the roof of the village hall, which is good news for the naturists amongst us but not such good news for those wishing to progress the renovation work. It means that we need to have an emergence survey to ascertain if bats are there and if they are, we will need to obtain a licence and mitigation plan which will specify what we must do during the construction process to protect them. All of this must be done before the planning process will be initiated which, unfortunately, means that the earliest we can expect planning approval will be October, rather than the hoped for date of August.
The other challenge, at present, is to obtain quotes for, and appoint, a structural engineer to perform a survey and calculations on the structure of building to determine if any strengthening will be required. Of particular interest will be the roof structure which is partially hidden by the ceiling.
The good news is that we now have the preliminary costings of all the renovations and refurbishments that we want to make to the hall. They cover everything we want to do and much more than our initial objective of replacing the roof and cladding the walls. We now need to decide how to best proceed in phases and tailor our bids for funding accordingly.
More good news is that we have found an alternative source of funding in the Community Ownership Fund, which is Government sponsored and separate from the National Lottery. We qualify for this particular fund because we are now an incorporated organisation, unlike most other village halls. Each of the major funds have specific requirements that we are assessing to decide how we can best take advantage of them.
For those of you who haven’t noticed, the village hall website has been upgraded to a secure website (note the https://) thanks to Jimmy, who has been busy bringing it all up-to-date. Please use the online ‘Bookings’ facility if you wish to hire the hall and feel free to contact us if you would like to see specific improvements.
Finally, just a reminder that the Garden Show and Fete is fast approaching on August 12th and to start thinking about your entries to the various classes, details on www.chittlehamptongardenshow.co.uk.
Thank you for your continued support
Chittlehampton Village Hall Trustees
