I am pleased to be able to inform the village that acceptable offers to purchase the existing hall site to build four detached houses have been received. The best offer has been accepted subject to contract, which is currently being discussed between our respective solicitors. I should like to thank Joe Fisher for the support and assistance he has given to us as we have sought to construct a new hall and sell the old one.

We have also now received four tenders to construct the new hall following a tender process run by our architects, Taylor Roberts. As this piece is being written, we are in discussion with two tenderers to see whether we can reach a firm figure which will allow us to sign a contract with one of them to start construction of the new hall. As we expected, the budget is very tight, but we believe that we can agree sufficient savings on the tenders as received to allow us to build the new hall, although some of the refinements may need to be added later.

As always, time is of the essence, as the purchaser of the existing hall site is keen to make a start, but we need to build the new hall first to allow us to continue to provide an operational hall to all our users. It is hoped that we can complete the new hall within 9 months of signing the contract.

The trustees are aware of the need to inform the village of what is happening and so we will set a date for a public meeting, probably in October once we have signed the various documents and the need to maintain commercial confidentiality has passed. In case anyone has forgotten, we will not be having a Village Show this September. As explained earlier this year, we decided that the trustees would be too busy with getting the new hall underway and that this had to take precedence. As you can see from the first part of this article, our prediction was very accurate!

Sandy Mackay, Chairman of the Trustees