Fairlight Community Hub

Faircomm is a working group set up by the Parish council to explore the feasibility of providing a meeting place with storage for the use of village groups on the Woods Field Recreation Ground.

The present hut on the recreation ground is no longer fit for purpose and will need investment. We would like to make this into an opportunity to develop the facility for the use of the village.

The new meeting place is not intended to replace the Village Hall, but rather to extend the facilities available in the village.

UPDATE 26/05/2032

Principle designer (HSE) has been assigned and soil investigation has taking place – holes drilled and filled with water to see how long it takes to drain away.  Awaiting test results.

UPDATE 28/2/2023

At last night Parish Council meeting it was agreed that the Companies that the Faircomm committee had agreed should do the paperwork to allow the project to move forward should be collected from Pump House – project Architects – and get the them signed so as the project can move forward to the next step.


UPDATE 15/01/2023

Conditions that Rother planning put on the planning application are now being looked at by the team.  Pump House – Th Architects will deal with these and get them sorted. Quotes have been obtained to deal with the building works and civil works that will need dealing with.  Once all the quotes are in the  Parish Council will be given  the list to decide on the way forward.

UPDATE 11/8/2022

Outline planning permission has been granted for the New Community Hub. There are conditions that have to be met and they are currently being worked by the  committee.

UPDATE 30/05/2022

The plans for the New Community Hub are on Rothers Planning portal for all to see. The link below will take you to the portal then you need to enter the following in the search bar: RR/2022/1096/P


https://planweb01.rother.gov.uk/OcellaWeb/planningSearch

Once in you will be able to see all the plans and necessary documents. You can also add comments.
The plans are to replace the current Activate Hut – which is past its best – with a New Community Hub. This Hub is not to replace the village hall but will be able to assist, where it can, for any overflow and indeed to cater for new facilities such as most field activties ie; walking football, lawn darts, pentique, large draughts and chess, badminton and soft ball to name but a few. The inside will cater for indoor bowls and a possible library. The kitchen will have two serving hatches one to the outside veranda and one to the hall. A full set of wc’s including disabled and baby changing facilities.

UPDATE 28/03/2022

The Parish Council and steering group have agreed the revised drawings for the new Community Hub on wood field. Pump House have been advised and they are now collating all the necessary paperwork together to send the request for planning application to Rother Planning department. The steering group will now concentrate on dealing with the funding that will be required to take the project forward.

Two rows of whips, bushes, have been planted along the back of the current Activate hut to reinforce the hedge that had to be cleared of dead and decaying rubbish.

UPDATE 13/1/2022

The initial plans have come back from the Architect -Pump House Design – and the group have met to discus them.

The group are very satisfied with the overall design but amendments need to be made and questions asked. The amendments and alterations are mostly cosmetic changes where maybe the groups requirements were not clear enough in the first instance. These will be sent back to the Architect to make the changes. Some of the changes refer to the use of materials for the outside which will be Eco friendly material and maintenance free, car parking, safety and security with regards to windows etc.

Discussions within the group are taking place with regards to the next step in the process when the plans have been returned, not least that of funding the project.

Meanwhile 420 whips from the “Woodland Trust” have been ordered to infill from the Bowls club entrance, behind the Activate hut and along the hedge line passed the two huts, where the old dead wood and scrub has been cleared out. A request for help in planting these will follow nearer the time.

UPDATE 18/11/2021

The Ecologist has been and carried out his survey, but will need to return to survey the inside of the Activate hut. His report will take a few weeks to come through.

 

The Architect came on the 18th November and got under way. The group were expecting a conversation and discussion but the groups
original brief was enough for him to start measuring. The base plan will take about 5-6 weeks before we get it back to make any adjustments before moving onto the next step.

 

UPDATE 13/10/2021

The Architects have been booked for the 18th November 2021. Pump House are the prefered choice of Architects. The Ecologist is due to visit in 3 weeks time to do his survey. The site has been clered of all rubish.

 UPDATE 5/10/2021

The Faircomm group have agreed to appoint an Architect to draw up the plans for the New Community Hub prior to submitting plans for consent. In the meantime survey are being carried out that need to go with the drawings for planning.

UPDATE 21/08/21

The group are still waiting for information from  the 5 Architects who were asked to quote.

UPDATE 17/7/2021.

To date the group are still awaiting further information from all the Architects that have been asked to quote for the new Community Hub. Some information has been sent to us, unfortunately all the quotes differ from each other. The reason is that not all the quotes have the same list of surveys, that are required to go with the planning application. This is making it very difficult, for the group, to recommend to the Parish Council which quote would be more acceptable to move forward with.

UPDATE 1/7/2021

Architects quotes have been returned to the group. Further question have been asked by the group because not all the quotes cover all the necessary surveys that will be required. This does mean that the group will not be in a position to bring to the July PC meeting a result of which Architect will be the most suitable for our project.

 

UPDATE 16/06/2021

The steering group have received the quotes from the Architects (5) and currently sifting through to reduce the number of quotes to a more manageable selection. A series of question – raised by the group – is currently being collated and the Architects will be sent a list of those questions. Two of the Architects have been asked to visit the site – their request to do so – which may help reduce the number of working quotes.

It is hoped that we will be in a position to bring to the next PC meeting, in July, our thoughts and views of what we think is the best
Architect to move forward with.

UPDATE  23/03/2021

At the Parish Council meeting on the 23/3/20201 the councillors gave their permission for an Architect to be sourced to draw up plans ready to go to planning.

UPDATE 29/01/2021

The current problems associated with Covid are still prominent and while zoom meetings can be held it has proved difficult when
finalising the floor plan. The groups only option was to get all the plans – designed by the group members – and combine them into
one. As one of the members had a drawing package on their computer it fell to them to pull the plans together and produce a solution that
encompassed all the plans. This has now been finalised and agreed by the group.

The plan, along with a location site plan and building requirements have been sent to 3 prospective building companies. They are a steel type company, a modular build and a timber framed company. We are currently awaiting their replies with an estimate – as this is all we can ask for at present – because we have not employed the services of an Architect or Surveyor. The group want to see an expected estimate before moving to the next step. We have also asked two local builders if they would like to provide an estimate.

As you can see there has much that the group have been doing, even though we cannot meet it has not stopped us doing as much as we can. We even found the old plans of when the Activate Hut was put up in 1999. This is a great help as it shows where everything is, cesspit, the old toilet block and construction method for erecting the hut. This will save our architect and surveyor time when we get to the next stage.

 

UPDATE  2/12/2020

Original plans have been returned from a Modular Build Company and have been returned for re-evaluation and costing as the design was more than what was asked for. The group will meet as soon as possible when the plans have been returned. There is a meeting due on 9th December but this will depend on the return of the plans in time. If they do not return in time a meeting will be set in the New Year.

UPDATE  2/11/2020

Because of the new Government lockdown the group will not be meeting until the lockdown is over.  

UPDATE    29/09/2020

The group have come up with a suitable floor plan for the New Community Hub and have asked several Modular Building Companies to visit the site to see if they can meet all our requirements.  Modular builds are possibly the most maintenance free, sustainable, Eco friendly structures, can provide a turnkey solution, cost effective method of build and the quickest to errect.

Thoughts have been given to storage for future and curent  groups/clubs that may wish to use the facility, a possiblke libaray, a kitchen suitable for events as parties/clubs that may wish to cook on site.  The car parking at the site will also need to be improved.

The group will also look to other build types, just in case the end result from the Modular Build cannot meet all our requirements.

The build must be expandable for future requirements and fit for purpose from planning to hand over. Consideration must be given to the current situation that we find ourselfs in and be adaptable enough for the fututre when we are back to normal.

Future updates will appear here when more information is available.

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