October Update

October Update
A lot’s happened since our last update and I wanted to share with you where we are. It’s starting to feel very real and exciting…..

Progress on Site
The building is now pretty much weather tight, almost all of the doors and windows are in and work is underway on the first fix mechanical and electric installation. The exception is the roof along the Southern (bowling green) side of the Hall. The contractors have needed the weather to render and paint the Southern walls at high level, before the scaffolding can be struck and the roof installed. That roof is due to go on next week.

What’s it going to look like inside?
We’ve recently appointed Interior Architecture Design (IAD) Cardiff to develop the interior design of the new Hub. We’re working with representatives from all our partner organisations to make sure it works for everyone, but we wanted to give you a sneak preview of the initial proposals……. (Click any of the pictures for larger images)

Ground Floor Lounge & Bar

Upstairs Meeting Room Hub

Library Space

Online Bookings & Out of Hours Access
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve recently contracted with a company called EZ Runner to provide the online booking and out of hours access systems.All booking will be done online and users will be able to view the availability of the hall and meeting rooms live and in real time.

The Hub will also be open, staffed or not, with the system recognising that you’ve booked a space and letting you in automatically through the integrated access control.

Similarly, Pembrokeshire Council Council have recently contracted with Bibliotheca (a library systems provider) to give out of hours access to the new Neyland Community Library. As a result, the library will be open, staffed or not, at least 8am until 10pm every day included Sunday, with Neyland Library becoming Pembrokeshire’s first extended access site.

Funding
You may have read newspaper headlines in the last few months to the effect that the project has ‘run out of money’. We haven’t. We did though, find ourselves with a funding shortfall and we would like to explain why.When the initial tenders came in (these are the initial quotes from building contractors) there was a gap (between the funding in place at that time and the value of the cheapest quote received) of about £900,000. Through a combination of reviewing the specification in detail and securing additional grant funding we were able to reduce that funding gap to £360,000. We’d hoped to get the full £900,000 through additional grants but given we’d already secured £2m in funding, we never really expected to get the full £900,000 on top.

We had a contingency plan in place, in case we couldn’t secure all of the funding required. That involved completing everything on the ground floor (we had the funding for that) but not completing the upper floor.

Working together with Pembrokeshire County Council and Neyland Town Council, we discussed the siutation with them and we all agreed that it would be better to find the additional funding and complete the upper floor in phase 1.

In September, we agreed a deal to close that final £360,000 funding gap and now it’s full steam ahead to compelte the 1st floor.

Next Period
Having only instructed the first floor works into the contract in September, it will now be March/April until the 1st floor of the Hub is complete but it will be completed and that’s the main thing.In summary, we’re going to be a bit late, but we’re sure it’s going to be worth it. As always << Test First Name >> If you want to know anything further please don’t hesitate to give me a shout.

Thanks,

Paul