Wow, progress …

Since I posted last, exciting progress … in order with the best bit last!

So Selborne Council (thats the managing committee, in other words the Charity Trustees and the Directors of the Company, who members vote for at the AGM) decided that in preparation for the new building, we d change fences about a bit. Peter Edwards and I rebuilt the fence as you come in – the old posts were very rotten and we had some new timber we’d bought because we though it would come in handy, so we used that and recycled some of the rails from the fence, and it all now looks fine and dandy.

Council had also agreed a new fence across the Paddock, so that the hutfield would be larger and the horses away from the Construction area, so on the 17th May a team from DTZ, property professionals up in London, came and built that – making a first class job of it! Thank you so much, all of you. That was a part of the “Business in the Community” initiative, and they also removed the old “Vistors Centre” and relocated it into the Wood, close to the Toilets, where it will become a new bird observation hide. Oh, and they painted pretty well everything, were wonderful and hard working and did a great job all round.

So site preparation is well in hand; there will be other little bits and pieces going on – we need to put up a new steel cabinet for storage as the old garage will come down sooner or later, and we need to find a home for the stuff in there. Though theres a fair amount that can be thrown away too. One job that needs doing is moving the water trough for the horses; that needs to be fairly soon and will involve quite a deep trench for a new pipe. While we are about it we can give it a lick of paint and site it in a corner where its a bit less blooming ugly! That needs to be quite soon so if anyone fancies doing a bit of digging, we ‘ve a place where you can practice.

After our “due diligence” checks, and a bit of a delay, we appointed Strawworks, and Barbara Jones. The contract was signed and the cheque drawn and posted off on the Tuesday; will have been at Todmordon on Wednesday 22nd May. I was a bit surprised to receive first draft plans on Sunday the 26th! And they are good, and the timing was very good as we had a design group meeting on the 28th, yesterday, so we were able to review them, and suggest refinements. Hopefully there will be a 2nd and final draft very soon, and when that happens I ll ask Barbara for permission to post them so all can see.

So, all that is good. and I’ve saved the best bit to last … Council met 20th May. Treasurer – John Wells –  presented his report, announcing that we have had a  substantial, anonymous donation  – combined with the £60,000 that Council has already allocated,   a big dent in the cost of the scheme has been made!  There will be other costs, preparing the site, and fitting out the building. But all of that ought to be possible with grants  and odd bits of fundraising.

Huge thanks to all who have donated,  it is a real boost to have our vision for the future supported so tangibly!

The Next Steps …

The planning group will meet on the 24th June, and a new fundraising subgroup on the 17th to explore grants and so on.

We’ll need a Soil Survey so we have an idea of the ground conditions and the loadbearing capacity so that the foundations can be designed accordingly.

We need to order straw bales (in the autumn), and have them stored in the dry until we need them.

Planning application needs to go in before the end of July, to benefit from the fee that we’ve already paid for the abortive scheme last year.

And since we also need a lot of car tyres (car tyre foundations are  favoured, apparently!) so need to “source” those, and get them on order. Ought nto be a massive problem, but getting them all the right size is stretching my imagination a little!

So, in time honoured style, I will sign off with an optomistic “Watch this post”!