Well we are nearly there! After two years of applications, writing copious amounts of guff, pouring over spreadsheets and generally getting stressed out over frantically moving goalposts, we are about to drawdown some major funds to develop the Coach House. There are still one or two things outstanding but we should have them sorted by Wednesday which, until 6pm last Thursday, was the deadline to submit our drawdown request. Yes, even on the brink of signing a fixed price contract the following morning, we were told that the government deadline to drawdown and have spent/committed the funds by 31st March, 2011 was now relaxed due to some clever negotiations and an endowment account.
Hey, what the heck, as long as we get it - but its been a frustrating and challenging process and I am sure I have many more grey hairs! BUT I shouldn't harp on about the negatives as we are really lucky to be in a position to move our project on. With so many voluntary groups in big trouble funding-wise, we are about to start a major project to develop the Coach House into a new community building with a Cafe/Pizzeria. Running parallel to this is another project to create a natural play scheme, thanks to a Playbuilder grant which was cut last year but reinstated. Of course we are going to make rather a mess on the field but the playscheme will be completed by the end of August so hopefully it will look wonderful by this time next year. The Coach House project will start on 28th March and be completed in November with the Cafe opening early in 2012. Keep watching this space for progress reports. Phew!
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