• "Chairman's Report" May 2013
• "Drop In Sessions" September 2013

New Community Centre
Drop-in Sessions

In the Village Hall

Your chance to

• Watch a video of the construction work
• Find out about the facilities and opportunities on offer in the new centre
• tell us what you would like to see going on there
• tell us what you can do to help
• ask questions.

The contractors (Pelham Structures) and members of the Steering Group will be there to provide more information and answer your questions.

This is a centre for your village – please come along.

February 2013 Report by the Chairman of the MC&SC Steering Committee
Annual Parish Meeting May 2013.

After nearly fourteen years of effort final planning permission was obtained in February to build a new village hall and new sports pitches on the playing fields. The planning process had been immensely bureaucratic with many ups and downs but finally the dogged determination of the project Steering Committee won through. At last Pelham Structures, our developer, was allowed to start work and they did so at top speed. The change to the northern end of the village was instantly dramatic. The skyline will now change again week by week as the building work proceeds.

The first task was to remove the trees from the plantation. Many of these have already been replaced. Ultimately three times more trees will be planted as have been removed. My twelve year old grand-daughter was pleased to explain to me that one new tree captures one and a half times as much carbon as an old tree, so that our tree planting is achieving four and a half times more carbon capture than did the old plantation. Manuden is playing its part in controlling global warming!

There have been some massive earth moving machines visible – and very audible - sorry about that - on site. These have been used to level the ground to prepare for the new pitches and to create a large temporary hill and a similarly large temporary hole (a “borrow pit”) to enable earth to be moved around without the need to take it away or bring new soil to the site. The cranes have been used to pour the concrete foundations of the new village hall and to lay the large concrete slabs which form the floor to the building.

I am pleased to say that after three months work the project remains on time and on budget. Pelham Structures tell us the work should be sufficiently far advanced for them to hold their 2013 Christmas staff party in the new village hall. The project Steering Committee will be delighted to allow them to do so if the hall is sufficiently advanced ! The final completion of the building is expected in mid-February 2014 and the new football pitches should be available by the autumn of 2014.

The Steering Committee has already turned its attention to the management of the community facilities once they are commissioned. We want to make sure that all the exciting opportunities on offer are taken up as soon as possible and that the site is managed and maintained to the highest standards. We are planning an open meeting to be held in September this year in the existing Village Hall in which Pelham Structures will describe how the building and site as a whole will look and the Steering Committee will explain how we propose the site should be managed and maintained. We will be encouraging all our local clubs and societies to explore how they can make best use of what will be available. We will also be looking for volunteers to help run the site. The date and time of this meeting will be announced shortly; we hope the existing village hall will be full to bursting for the occasion, almost certainly for its final moment of glory.

Les Atkinson, May 2013.