August 2022
Hardwick Community Centre update August 2022.
Our plans have finally been submitted and we have achieved full planning permission.
A big thank you to everyone in the village who has contributed so much to help to get to this position. The contributions via emails, post-it notes and at our open meetings have helped our steering group achieve so much more than we could possibly have done without villagers' help.
There are still a few preconditions to be complied with regarding such things as using indigenous plants around the centre but, these aside, we are now preparing a short list of contractors to invite to tender for the build. This phase will take about three months to complete and then discussions will start with the chosen contractor over the final details.
As part of our tendering we are trying to be as eco-friendly as possible and will be asking for costings for Ground Source Heat Pumps, Air Source Heat Pumps and Solar Panels to give us options over cost-effective heating. We are also looking at rainwater harvesting and water recycling. These options are likely to be costly and the rise in building costs this year has, and will, affect the build, which we hope will be started early in 2023.
Increased costs across the board in so many parts of life have given us a dilemma as to how the final project will be fully funded. We have no wish to downgrade any of the quality we have planned into the building and will be taking time over the next three months to look at various options to add to the £1.3million, s106 money and other grants which the project already has from funds generated by the new build houses in the village. This search will be looking for extra grants, especially to help to get the eco-friendly elements of the project. This is another area where villagers could help us.
Can you get involved?
Do you know any businesses or grant-funding groups that we could apply to for extra funding? Do you have any expertise or desire to join a fundraising group that we hope to start up very soon, to raise funds locally for extras such as adult fitness equipment or computers in the library area?
Do you have any ideas we could use to raise funds?
(Alternatively, you could all just give us money, that would work!)
Are you interested in volunteering to help to set up a management group that will set the working schedules, staff recruitment and general running of the building once it's finished?
Are you interested in being a volunteer in a 'gardening and landscaping' group to help to maintain and extend the generous and extensive landscaping we have planned around the building?
So far the original six, now eight, members of the Hardwick Community Centre Working Group (HCCWG) have done nearly six years of work on this project and have enabled Hardwick to be ready to build a fantastic facility for the whole population. It has cost the residents nothing at all up to this point and £1.3 million is now waiting to be used in the final step thanks to the wholehearted support of the Parish Council. Now we feel it is time for more village residents to step up and help to complete the project in this final push. If you can help in any way then please email me and give me your ideas. This is a village project and it now needs your input.
Alan West on behalf of the HCCWG.