Planning Application in … plus other news

It’s been a while since I ve updated, for which apologies; too much to do … this somehow gets pushed to the back; but theres real progress to report.

The greatest news is that the new planning application has been submitted; this is for the Straw Bale Building designed by Straworks. We had a couple of tweaks to the original proposals, but now have what ought to be a beautiful, funcional building.

The Planning Application was submitted on the 1st August, in time for the Anniversary of withdrawing the previous application SO we avoided paying another fee – hurrah; the deadline that imposed was quite useful too as it gave us something to work to.

The plans etc. will appear on the Ealing Website quite soon (might take a few days for them to filter through) but you can view them here…. there are a number of files hopefully the names are fairly self explanatory – the “elevationsgreen” is for the building if we have a biodiverse roof (soil and plants growing on it) – this is the best job that we’d really like but is likely to be a bit expensive SO the alternative is “elevations shingles” which show the building with cedar shingles on it (like tiles but cut from cedar rather than slate, concrete or clay) – these would still meet our sustainable objectives but be very much cheaper, as they are lighter than several tons of topsoil on top of the roof, so the roof structure can be much less expensive.

We intend to use as much recycled stuff as possible, consistent with a fantastic, wonderful, and inspiring building, and to that end we intend to strip some materials from the Rickyard, which the Council are finally demolising quite soon (see earlier in the blog) – we’ll be taking cladding, windows, electrical apparatus, and a few other bits and pieces. The likely time for this is now the 17th and 18th  August. Storage of the stuff for a year is going to be courtesy of Holy Trinity Church, Perivale, who have kindly loaned us a shed at the back of their church; they ve also kindly given us 40 stacking chairs, that we ‘ve used to replace the hotchpotch of old chairs in the old hut; the “new” ones (actually probably 40 years old) all match, are in good condition, and will serve us well in the new building. Other stuff has been donated; kitchen units from a flat in Central London, and white boards for educational use. It will all come in useful!  Of course this is all to fulfill our “Pioneers in Conservation” tag line, the “Waste Heirarchy” of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

We needed a “Soil Survey” to ensure that the preferred foundations – car tyres with hardcore rammed into them – was viable, and after a few enquiries and discovering that a professional one would cost about £1600,  a post hole auger was used to bore a hole 800 mm deep, and the soil examined. This gave sufficient information to be sure that the site is on clay, so 1 m deep foundations ought to be sufficient, and car tyres ought to do the job. this is great as though unorthodox, they are again sustainable; finding a second use for old car tyres (worn out ones will do just fine) and free of concrete etc.,

And money, of course is important … it all needs to be paid for. We’ve put in a grant application with Veolia Trust,  for £50,000, – ambitious, but within their parameters, and we stand a reasonable chance of success. Coupled with the money that we ought to have, the project would be more or less paid for – but additional funds would enable us to do a better job (the biodiverse roof, for instance, rather than the cheaper shingle roof) and fit the building out really well.

So, what next … it will take the Council till about October to give us Planning Consent (or refuse it) – during that time we can major on other grant funding, getting materials in, and other preparations … there will be lots to do. One job will be to reduce some willows at the Reserve Entrance, install a steel storage cabinet, and transfer the contents of the Garage to the new cabinet; the cabinet will become our new tool store, and form a wall for our new cycle racks.