VILLAGE HALL NEWS SHEET April 2011  

THE NEW VILLAGE HALL
Welcome to the latest update on what’s going on with the new Village Hall. All the funding is in place, all the legal agreements and contracts are signed off and after many years of talking about it, we are about to see our NEW Village Hall built.

Building Start Date
At the time of writing, PJ Spillings Ltd, our appointed builders, are due to start on site on Tuesday 26 April.
Therefore, by the time you read this, work should have started.

Key Milestones
We will be having a number of events to link into the key stages of the project over the coming months and this will give us the opportunity to share wider, the progress being made with our new hall.
The first of these will be a small ceremony to mark the cutting of the first turf on the morning of Thursday 28 April.
We will also be celebrating the “topping out” later in the year and there will also be some organised site visits for those who wish to take a closer look as the building progresses.

Photo Diary
In order to record progress on the project, we are going to arrange a photographic diary, which will be posted on this website.
We already have teenager volunteer, from the village, but if you are interested in helping in this, let us know!

One of the first jobs will be to relocate the play area to its new site, so that it can be used through the construction project. We will be taking the opportunity to remove some of the older pieces of equipment that do not meet modern standards.
Space will be left for their replacement, along with other new equipment, in due course.

Access to the Field
Questions have been asked regarding access to the Playing Field during the construction project.
We are still finalising the details, but we believe that safe pedestrian access will be maintained at all times, from both the gate at the southern end of the field and from the footpath at the northern end, both off Ouse Lane.
The existing vehicular access from Mallard Way will be used for almost all construction traffic and a safe track for non-construction vehicles will be maintained for most of the time.
However, there will inevitably be some short periods when this access will not be available and we have arranged for the gate access on Ouse Lane to be used for short periods for small vehicles.

Opening
The new hall will be handed over to the community in November this year and we will arrange both a formal opening and a launch party at that time.

Contact
We do not yet have site contact details for the contractors but will advertise these in due course. In the meantime, if you have any concerns regarding the actual construction project please feel free to contact Nick Baker on 598447 or 07980 259958 or Shirley Sainsbury on 598882 and we will deal with them.

Finance
The overall plan has always been to build the Hall without funding from the Parish Precept.
By working so hard to raise external funding and ensuring full market value for our assets, we have delivered the financial package for the new hall without calling on the Precept at all.

User/Fund-raiser Meeting
On 16 April, we held a meeting for people who had expressed an interest in running clubs and helping with fund-raising events going forward.
We now have firm interest in running the following activities:

Keep Fit/
Aerobics Pilates
Rural cinema
Dressmaking
Soft furnishing
Table Tennis
Mobile Gym
Badminton
Short Tennis for children
After school activities
Community Health visits
Horticultural Club
Youth Club

Further interest has been expressed in a wide range of other activities, both in terms of sports and non-sporting recreation and as these are confirmed, we will obviously advertise these.

Focus on…….Rural Cinema
In the surveys we carried out, a large number of people requested that we look at the possibility of running a rural cinema in the new hall. This would allow you to watch recently released films without having to travel into Norwich and park the car! Work is underway to cost the installation of the necessary equipment, which would also be used to provide audio facilities
for functions such as parties and weddings as well as conferencing/business meetings.
Initial enquiries have indicated that grant funding may be available for such a project.
Community cinemas have proved very popular throughout Norfolk providing something for all ages.
We are looking for people who are interested in getting involved with helping in this area, so if you fancy being a projectionist, film booker or promoter please contact Shirley Sainsbury.
In terms of fund-raising for the new hall, we are starting to plan a number of events and activities to provide both one-off and ongoing funding so watch this space for details!