Construction Updates
Follow our progress with the construction of the building here.
Our first phase is to achieve a watertight building by the end of March 2026.
Each week we will be taking a 'birds-eye view' photograph from a drone to see the construction progress - take a look here:
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Week beginning Monday 17th November 2025:
It's been a busy and exciting week! As soon as we had sorted out the legal formalities, Duraform started on site, with brothers Charl & Christian taking charge of the digger & dumper and accepting deliveries. They are friendly, welcoming and well wrapped-up against the bitter cold!
We are still waiting for final quotes to energise our mains electricity connection, so in the meantime Chris M has got agreement from the Sports Group (huge thanks to them!) that we can use their power and he's recoding meter readings. Chris E has set-up a temporary connection to the site for the contractors and they have a back-up generator in their GroundHog unit if required.
Speaking to the guys on site they have been very complimentary about the site in terms of levels and conditions - that is great because that is all stuff we have done and directly saved costs. Hats off to the digger drivers, dumper drivers, roller drivers, Alan for directing us, Lloyd for providing the material, basically all round. The comment was that the bearing capacity was twice as much as they needed - if you walk off the prepared bit into the unimproved field you'll know that took work!
The application to have all remaining Planning Conditions discharged has been submitted to DNPA. Building control have also been appointed and will do a first visit next week.
In terms of communications with neighbours, we have put letters through all the doors of Brook Lane residents and updated the site notice board with new relevant details.
Val & Simon Tame recently met Gail on-site to look at the Landscape & Ecological Management Plan (LEMP) to discuss planting requirements. They will plan and manage tree and bulb planting and we already have donations of bare root saplings and daffodil bulbs for this purpose. We'll put a shout out on the volunteer WhatsApp group when we need helpers for planting.
Miles has made a start on the new hedgebank separating the site from the swale area. This will be built using turf cut on site, so there will be no charge to the charity - great news as this will have more opportunity for biodiversity, and less maintenance as we had expected to have to put up a fence!
In the background, grant applications for further stages of work are being made. Remember we only have enough in the kitty to get the building to a watertight shell currently, but we would dearly like to continue with works once that stage is reached. Hence a continued effort with grant applications.
All of this work can only go ahead because we have a supportive community who have pulled together to get the funding package over the line, for that we are very grateful. It will be exciting to see the outline of hall emerge over the coming months.
Week beginning Monday 24th November 2025:
Duraform have had a fairly relaxed week on our site getting the final preparation work done before our “build lite” order arrives ready for casting the main floor slab (expected midway through week 3).
Completed work this week has been a small amount of material spread and rolled on the previously levelled material. This got the site completely level. They have then installed the Radon system - Radon is a gas which comes from Granite and is radioactive. It is heavier than air so can collect in places, and therefore there are special rules in Granite areas to avoid this happening. In this case, it is putting a grid of perforated pipes right under where the build lite will be. Think of it like ground drainage, but for heavy gas. Duraform have done this, and that is the network of blue pipes just at the surface area.
Duraform have been happy to let Miles work alongside them on site too and he has built a new turf bank across the site. By stripping turf off the site and using it to create a new bank, this is a cheap way to build and sorts all the functional requirements of keeping the dark, bat-friendly space separate from the car parking area. In due course, between Gail and Simon & Val Tame (& hopefully a group of willing volunteers!), this will get planted up with hedging saplings on top. We shouldn’t need to do much on the swale side of that bank now.
