Upgrade to Sports Pavilion
The existing pavilion was built in the 1930s
in wood and is now in a state of poor repair, with some rot in the wooden fabric of the building. It does not meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. There are limited storage facilities
and it does not meet the Football Association recommendations for separate changing facilities for the teams and match officials.
The pavilion is the oldest in Hope Valley
and provides the poorest facilities, which limits both the ability to expand recreation provisions for the village, and its
utility and attractiveness to other organisations.
The upgraded pavilion will support three
main types of activity:
¶ Sports, in particular football and use by Bamford Primary School
¶ Community events including the Sheepdog Trials, Carnival and the Vintage Car Rally
¶ Ecology. Preserving, enhancing and promoting a greater awareness of the ecological heritage
Here are a few of the questions that have arisen in relation to
this project:
What facilities will the building have?
The upgraded pavilion will contain:
Ø 2 sets of changing rooms, showers and toilets
Ø A disabled toilet
Ø An extended kitchen which will double as a club room for the use of sports coaching, community
activities etc.
The above are based on the drawings used in connection with the planning application.
How has the finance be raised to upgrade the building?
The money has come from a very generous donation
from a former resident of Bamford and an appeal to the Village for pledges which should raise the £10,000 we were short to
enable us to complete the initial upgrade.
What about the running costs?
A detailed analysis of the expected running costs will be undertaken
once the heating and running costs of the new shower have been calculated. It
is anticipated that an extra £2,000 p.a. will be required. It is expected that much of this will come from a couple of large
events.
Bamford doesn’t need another meeting room, won’t it take custom away from
the existing meeting rooms?
Meeting rooms are not something that Bamford
is short of, and given the location is unlikely to be used in the same way as the Bamford Village Institute or the Moore
Memorial Hall. The Recreation Ground Trustees are keen that the upgraded building
does not take custom away from the existing facilities. The extended kitchen will serve as a kitchen and club room and
will be used for serving refreshments at events.
Will we have caravans on the Recreation Ground every weekend to pay for the building?
The Peak Park Authority governs the number of caravan rallies
allowed at any venue in the Park in any one year. It is not anticipated that
the Authority will allow any more rallies than usual.
Pavilion Refurbishment Update
First, a huge, massive thank you to the residents and business of Bamford who have made generous pledges to the Pavilion
Refurbishment Fund over the last couple of weeks. You have made a real difference. If all the pledges are fulfilled then we have almost reached our initial goal of £10,000,
with the Parish Council very generously contributing £3,500. Thank you all. This has helped hugely to close the gap between what we had and what we needed to
complete the work. We now have sufficient funds (we think!) to complete the full
project, although we have one or two fallback positions in the event of a cash shortfall.
As I write there are still a couple of cost elements that have yet to be confirmed, but it is likely that we will be
able to complete the full plan.
However, we may not have funds to complete fitting out the kitchen area, buying chairs and tables for the clubroom
etc. So if you are still considering making a donation, please make your cheque
payable to ‘Bamford with Thornhill Recreation Ground’ and send it to Sue Beckett (Hon Treasurer). It will be very gratefully received!
Valley Services started work on Monday, 27th July and the work will last for nine weeks, so it is due to
finish around Friday, 25th September 2009. During this period the
pavilion will be completely out of action and there will be no access to it. We
apologise for the inconvenience, but it will be worth it when it reopens. We
are also putting plans together for an official grand reopening event in October, with some really great activities.
John Soady (Hon. Chair)
