Yesterday afternoon we held a site meeting with the contractor who will in the next few days receive a contract from us asking him to build the Village Hall extension. We have agreed a start date of the 19th Oct and a target completion date of Feb 26th. (Please note the hall will continue in use until 22nd Oct.) This start date is 4 weeks earlier than we had originally been advised to expect and although it is going to cause a few problems the earlier start is very welcome as it does mean that we have a much better chance of meeting the end of February completion date that we have been pushing for in order that we have a chance of getting all Parish Council financial transactions connected with the contract completed by the end of this financial year.
One of the problems is our own Extraordinary Meeting at which we have to make plans to deal with the financial problems that this project will create for us and that we have advertised for the 22nd October. It is almost certain because of the way the terms of the grants promised to us have been stipulated that the Council will become overdrawn on it’s bank account so we have to agree on how the contract is set up and how we make our payments such that it will cause us minimum problems. A Parish Council must not go overdrawn without permission from the Secretary of State.
We would also like to agree at the meeting the work we need to undertake to change the area surrounding the hall. We have many ideas to discuss including building a patio, enlarging the play area and the car park and ways in which we can constructively use the soil and sub-soil that will be removed in the first few days of the contract.
We apologise for any inconvenience the change of meeting date may cause but as you can see it must be held before work commences. The new date for the meeting is Friday 16th October at 8.00 in the Methodist Hall. Through the use of this email I am able to notify 65 households, please pass on the information to anyone I am unable to reach if you think they will be interested.
We realise that we have just one chance to get right the changes we plan to make around the hall and would therefore like as many of you to come along to the meeting as possible. It is a Parish Council meeting in which we are closely tied in the way matters are debated and agreed but I assure you we will find time to listen to your views as well as make you fully aware of how we plan to deal with the problems that we are likely to face over the next 4-5 months.
You may wonder why we want to debate the future of the mounds in the Recreation Ground as part of this exercise. As part of the way we intend to work with the contractor to the advantage of both parties the contractor agreed at yesterday’s meeting to help us move, remove or re-engineer the mounds whilst he has a mechanical digger on site so again we have a short window of opportunity to agree to undertake work that is in the best interest of our parishioners.
Agenda
1) Financial requirements for dealing with the contract.
2) Agreeing the changes around the village hall
Re-surfacing the Car Park
Extending the Car Park
Extending the Play Area
Patio and Shrubbery
What to do with the soil and sub-soil.
3) Future of the Mounds
Item 3 may be taken first if young parishioners attend with an interest in this topic
Mike Brown Vice Chairman Upton P.C.
9th Oct. 2009
