CPC March 2023 Minutes
Minutes of the Community Pavilion Sub-Committee meeting of Cranwell, Brauncewell and Byard's Leap Parish Council held on Monday 6th March 2023 at 7:00 pm.
Participating: Chairman: Cllr Mr T Batten
Councillors: Cllr Mr M Pears, Cllr Mr M Cassidy, Cllr D.Wilson, Cllr D.Graves. Apologies received from Cllr C. Batten and Cllr M.Collier. Accepted.
The meeting was opened at 7.08 p.m.
The minutes of the last meeting on October 31st were taken as read and approved unanimously.
Cllr Pears explained the agenda for the meeting. This was to consider the estimates and quotes that we had received and to decide on how to proceed. It was unanimously agreed that we now had to make progress.
Cllr Pears pointed out that we had now received more than 5 quotes for the building in recent months. Phil Bagnall, our previously “favoured” contractor from previous months had finally submitted his quote for the job which was £255,000. We had received several quotes for wooden buildings but only one of them seemed able to offer us the “turnkey” operation that we wanted. We recently received quotes of £163,000 + v.a.t (Timberlogbuild) and £130,000 (Hortons) but both of these were for the building only and they both required (at extra cost) additional foundation work and all internal fittings. All these quotes were considered too expensive.
Cllr Wilson suggested that we could opt for a much reduced building that consisted of just a Bowls Club Hub and a large storage area for the Football Club. He suggested that we could convert the Old School Building into changing rooms etc for the Football Club. He suggested that this would reduce the area of the build to around 60% of its current size – so being much cheaper. After discussion it was generally agreed that this was very much a “last gasp” solution that did not fulfil the brief that had been agreed by the public in their survey results.
The discussion then went on to consider the quote from “The Woodlands Group” for a wooden building. Cllr Pears highlighted the salient points of their quote. They were quoting a figure of £125,000 that included v.a.t and a £13,000 “contingency” fund. So, for us, this represented a price of £91,000 for the building (ex v.a.t), £13,000 for the contingency. This was a “turnkey” operation where they constructed the building on site, probably taking about 12-15 weeks to do so. It included all insulation and a “standard” internal fit of plumbing, electrics, decoration etc. The addition to this would be the demolition of the existing portacabins and the groundworks (foundations) for the new building. Also there would be additional costs of a rainwater drainage sump, external pathways and fees for public bodies (building regs, drainage checks, etc).
Cllr Pears pointed out that he and Cllr Cassidy had held a meeting with a company for groundworks and they had received a quote of £23,000 for demolition and foundations. Extra to this would be the cost of the rainwater sump.
Cllr Pears pointed out that the Council had a max budget to spend of around £190,000 if they borrowed the full amount of £94,000 as agreed in the survey. He stated that there was also “unbudgeted reserves” in the Council accounts that could realise another £25,000 - £30,000 in emergencies. However, it was stressed, and again confirmed by all, that the Council had previously agreed that they wanted to keep a loan down as low as possible with the shortest possible repayment period so as not to handicap future parish councils for a long time.
Cllr Pears pointed out that a realistic budget ought to be a maximum of £160,000 which would be made up of the £70,000 donation, £20,000 from the Pavilion Fund, £7,000 from the Council budgeted reserve and a £63,000 loan. He pointed out that as the Council had already budgeted £10,000 per annum for loan repayments this could mean a repayment period of around 7-8 years. It was agreed that this was desirable and that the suggested budget ought to be realistic for the project done in this way – it gave us at least £33,000 of extra money for the additional, as yet, unknown costs + the contingency money.
It was unanimously agreed to proceed with this quote as speedily as possible.
Cllr Pears again pointed out the care needed to ensure that v.a.t could be reclaimed on the project – the v.a.t rules are very specific and complicated for these projects. In essence the building must be “non-profit making” or used for “charitable purposes” as defined by being used to provide social and recreational facilities for the community. It is envisaged that the plan to lease it to the Village Hall Trust on a peppercorn rent should be appropriate but Cllr Pears said that he would seek expert opinion.
A ”Way Forward” was agreed:-
• We need to obtain all the information needed in order to arrive at a realistic final price for the scheme which will then give us the figure that we need.
• We need to have a meeting with the contractor as soon as possible to obtain more specific detail. He has offered to come and see us and this needs to be fixed a.s.a.p.
• From NKDC – we need details for sump that is required to deal with the volume of surface water. We can then get the quote from the Groundworks company.
• We need confirmation from Anglian water that the existing 4 inch pipe will be sufficient for the foul drainage.
• We need (ideally) two more foundation quotes. We have two in progress – one said that he wanted to come to view the job.
While we are currently keen on pursuing the Woodlands Group quote (and we will) it was also agreed that for clarity we should advertise the project on the National Tendering Site to give everyone the chance to place a bid. We believe that this would satisfy regulations.
The meeting closed at 8.10 p.m.