How long have we had this eyesore in our village ?
Villagers can’t use it properly as it’s unhealthy and only used for storage.
Let’s remove it now and replace it with a “Cranwell Community Pavilion” building that we can be proud of and use as a village resource.
Vote in the survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LCR97W2
The Parish Council are making plans to demolish the portacabin opposite the Social Club to replace it with a new “Cranwell Community Pavilion” that will provide facilities that can be used by a variety of our local organisations and which will enhance the appearance of the area. The existing building was moved from R.A.F. Cranwell a long time ago and parts of the buildings are now badly affected by black mould and are only now suitable for storage. The Bowls Club cabin, which backs onto these buildings, is in need of constant repair. After discussions with local organisations our plan is to build changing facilities for the use of our local sports teams with washing and toilet facilities; to have a new clubroom for our bowls club to use and to provide a community area for a variety of activities. We envisage it being used initially by the Junior Football teams of the village but hope that having such a facility will encourage other organised groups to be formed or developed. We have received a recent request from a local sports team to use our playing fields but they have been deterred by the lack of these facilities (changing rooms, toilets etc).
Needless to say projects like these don’t come cheap and we are now seeking the approval and backing of our community to use Parish Council funds for this purpose. We are currently researching different styles and types of building to achieve our purpose and we are getting some basic plans drawn up (free of charge). We now need your views about whether you will support this venture and if so, what type of building you would prefer. Your views really will influence our decision making about this and if we don’t receive a majority of “yes” votes then we won’t continue with the project. Below we have given brief details of some building types that are under consideration and also information about the finances involved in achieving this. Our final design will be subject to Local Planning requirements.
Please make sure that you to visit this site regularly to get more information - please bookmark the site and visit it often as we are building it into a community resource.
WHICH OF THESE BUILDING TYPES DO YOU PREFER ?
Pictures are just to show the style - all details - shapes, sizes etc - can be changed. All building-types can be designed to accomodate all the required facilities but the log cabin buildings will probably be less expensive than brick built.
Your chance to vote - find the survey at:https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LCR97W2
Funding the Project
The Parish Council is funded by means of the “precept” which is a component of your Council Tax payment to the District Council. Part of that payment is separated out and handed over to the Parish Council to pay for lots of village facilities including the repair and maintenance of buildings and equipment and for services like grass cutting etc. It also provides funds for new projects. The Council has over the years managed this money efficiently so that it has been able to fund larger projects. Recently we have resurfaced the Village Hall car parks, replaced the lighting in the Social Club car park and re-fenced the tennis courts.
Various members of the Village community have engaged in a variety of fund raising activities in recent years to try to raise money for this new building and through their hard work and enthusiasm they achieved the magnificent sum of £15,600 which is sitting in our account “ring-fenced” for this project. That provides a really good start but we need a lot more. We can, if necessary, borrow some of the money on behalf of the village and we are actively looking to get grants from various organisations which will obviously reduce our own input. These are ongoing, take time to be considered and are dependent on details (plans etc) that we currently don’t have until decisions are made.
In any event, it is likely that we will need to raise more money and this will mean increasing the “precept” by more than usual in order to pay back the borrowing and interest over a set period which we currently envisage as being 7 years. Until we know all the details we cannot be precise about what we need but below we are giving you what we consider to be the “highest-cost scenario” and requesting your approval to proceed with the project on the basis of this “highest cost”. We must stress again that if we don’t get approval from our community - we won’t continue with the project. We will just have to remove the existing portacabins and provide some storage for sports equipment.
We are currently estimating that the maximum the project may cost, subject to revision, is £110,000 in total for the “best” design although different styles could be cheaper. We already have £15,600 (see above) so the maximum amount that we might need to borrow, subject to revision, is £94,400. This would only be the case if we were unable to raise any grants. We are hopeful of raising some money as there are numerous sources for funding sports and community related projects.
Brexit makes precise pricing uncertain at this time; we are being advised that the inevitable changes to the U.K.’s trading relationships could affect the pricing of some building materials.
However, if we have to borrow the full £94,400 this is likely to cost each tax-paying household in the Parish an extra £13 per household each year on top of the usual precept payment for the period of borrowing (probably 7 years). In real terms this equates to an increase of £1.08 per month or around the cost of one and a half 1st class stamps. All figures are estimates at this stage but should, subject to revision, not be higher. To clarify - it should be stressed that this does not mean that the precept would be increased by a further £13 in each subsequent year on top of the £13 already charged (so making it £26 more in year 2, £39 in year 3 etc). Just the additional charge of £13 (or less – see below) would be added to the usual amount each year while the loan was running.
Grant monies could reduce these extra payments considerably and if we were successful in obtaining £55,000 (or half the cost) then it is likely that the additional cost to parishioners would be negligible (maybe £3 per annum for a few years) as most of the loan servicing costs could be met from existing funding. Any grant that we are able to obtain will reduce the contribution that is required from our households. Some examples :-
If we generate £10,000 funding - the cost per household would be approx. £11 per year (92p per mth)
If we generate £20,000 funding - the cost per household would be approx. £10 per year (83p per mth)
If we generate £30,000 funding - the cost per household would be approx. £9 per year (75p per mth)
If we generate £40,000 funding - the cost per household would be approx. £7 per year (58p per mth)
If we can generate £55,000 funding - the cost per household would be approx. £3 per year for possibly only one or two years (58p per month)
So initially we are asking for your opinion based on the highest cost to the taxpayer – are you prepared to pay a little more on your Council Tax to fund this project ?
As you will appreciate a project of this size requres a lot of work in planning and we need your approval so that we are not wasting our time and that of others.
Later, when have more precise details, we will put more information on this website and seek your further approval about the specifics.
If you give us the go-ahead on this then on this website we will keep everyone informed about progress with the project. We currently envisage a possible completion date of late 2021/early 2022.
NOW WE NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS PROJECT ?
WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THE VILLAGES WOULD OR WOULDN’T LIKE.
WE ARE NOW ASKING FOR YOUR PERMISSION TO PROCEED WITH THIS PROJECT "IN PRINCIPLE" AND FOR YOUR AGREEMENT TO PAY EXTRA FOR IT.
THE RESULTS WILL BE DECIDED BY THE MAJORITY VOTES FROM THE ACTUAL VOTES CAST - SO YOU MUST VOTE IF YOU WANT YOUR OPINION TO COUNT.
IF YOU VOTE “NO” FOR THIS THEN WE WILL NOT TAKE IT ANY FURTHER.
There are two ways to give us your vote:
1. Click on this link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LCR97W2 which will take you to a survey page on the “Survey Monkey” site where you can place your vote. It will only allow one vote from a particular device so if as a couple you both need to vote you will need to either use a different device (computer, tablet or phone) or place a paper vote on the voting slip provided on our leaflet to your home. The Parish Council is not receiving or recording any I.D information from your device.
2. If you are unable to vote online - use the voting form provided with the leaflet that was delivered to your home. Detach it and post it in the Voting Box located at Willows Stores in Cranwell Village. The closing date for all votes is JANUARY 31st 2021 (not 2020 as stated on the flyer) . Results will be posted on the website and on Parish noticeboards. The Parish Council will not record details of names & postcodes for future use. They are required only to check the validity of each vote. All coupons will be destroyed after the survey has been completed.
If you need a new voting slip - or another copy of our Flyer - please click on this link to download a form. Please note - you must include your name and postcode for audit purposes.