CanadaHallSept2007

CANADA HALL UPDATE

September 2007

You will recall that we approached the Big Lottery Fund earlier this year for a contribution of up to half the estimated cost of the new Canada Hall project (roughly £375k) and that they had until October to respond.

As many of you will already know, I’m afraid that on Saturday 1 September we received a letter from the Lottery turning down our application.

The Lottery tell us that the Community Buildings programme was heavily over-subscribed, receiving in excess of 2000 applications for funding totalling nearly £600m. The Lottery budget for this programme was £50m so the competition for funding was therefore incredibly stiff and the assessment of applications extremely rigorous and I’m afraid we didn’t make the cut.

Whilst this is obviously a disappointing setback we are absolutely clear that doing nothing is not an option. The Canada Hall Implementation Group (CHIG) therefore remains totally committed to the task of improving the facilities offered by Canada Hall.

To that end, CHIG has already met twice since and has begun to examine the options now open to us.

Although the design of the original scheme provided scope for the proposed development to be phased to enable us to complete the project in stages, the scheme was reliant upon securing a significant amount of funding from the Lottery, even if it was not the whole amount requested.

The fact that we will now receive no funding from the Lottery means that proceeding with phase 1 of the original scheme (around £350- £400k) is now looking impractical.

CHIG is therefore re-examining and costing what we might be able to do to augment and extend the existing structure and provide the improved kitchen and toilet facilities and more flexible accommodation we so badly need.

With the help of a new structural survey of Canada Hall, we will assess these options as quickly as we can and we will keep you informed as our work progresses.

Derek Hammersley and his CHIG team remain very positive and determined to continue the project of improving the community facility we have in Canada Hall. Allowing for existing funds and money raised this year we already have approximately £50k for the redevelopment of Canada Hall and work will continue in earnest to expand and implement our fund-raising programme to raise the money to move forward – as we must.

A number of fund-raising events are already scheduled including:-

 17 November Skittles in Newton Hazel Scout Hall

 8 December The Murder Mystery Evening

 9 February 08 The Gondoliers

There are more in preparation and we would ask you to please support these events whole-heartedly and financially.

With God’s help, and with positive teamwork from all of us, CHIG remains convinced that we can, and will, meet this different challenge put before us. So please do not lose heart. Even if the eventual solution may not be quite as grand as we had originally hoped, we are determined to provide users with an improved Community facility of which we can all be proud.

CHIG

10 September 2007