For some while, the Good Easter Parish Council has understood that both our current village hall and our sports pavillion are coming to the end of their usuable lives. The village hall recently reached its centenary and the sports pavillion is regularly undergoing repairs in order to maintain its safety and use for events.
Back in 2023 a decision was made to create a New Community Hall Working Group that would allow the parish council to fully explore the possibility of replacing both buildings with one combined building on the Sports Field itself. As a group, we felt that by creating one singular building to replace both current buildings, we could create a space that was more user friendly and that would provide more scope for village based activities and events.
Our initial work involved exploring other local village halls, including recent new builds, to find out how other parishes had achieved their aspirations, and, as you can imagine, the buidlings themselves and the way in which they were funded were varied. The information was, however, useful and gave as more reason to continue to explore the prospect of a new village hall for Good Easter.
Our next step was to employ an architect who could draw up a vision for us as well as potential costings. The final vision you can see pictured on the Home page. The costings, however are not small and will require a vast amount of funding.
This led us onto exploring the funding aspect of the project. We, therefore, employed Underwood Consulting, who carried our a feasability study for us and provided us with a Fundraising Proposal. It was clear from this proposal that we would need to create a charity in order to raise the money required and that there were several stages in which the project would need to be evaluated and reconsidered. It was also clear that in order to achieve funding, we would need to sell the current Village Hall land for redevelopment. This would be vital for match funding from charities such as the National Lottery. If you wish to read our fundraising strategy then you can do so here.
Not to be deterred, we carried on and secured a postive pre-appplication planning response for the new community building and had development plans drawn up for the current village hall site. We also took this to the pre-application planning stage and had another positive response from Chelmsford council planning department. (You can read both documents here).
We are now at a point where we can go no further until we have your views. You are the village we serve and we need to know if further time, effort and expense are a viable use of the Parish Council resources. We believe in the project but do you? Aside from your views, we also need to secure support for the charity we need to create. This charity will oversee the new community hall project funding, but will go on to run, maintain and manage the new community hall once it is in operation. We need volunteers from the village to come forward as trustees, and be willing to ensure the legacy of this project beyong the inital build. Do you have the skills, the willing and the drive to become a central part of the village? If so, we really want to hear from you!
Please do spend some time exploring the rest of the information on the website and then do tell us your views. It is really important that we know what you think. If you think you might like to volunteer in some capacity then let us know that too. Without volunteer support, this project cannot make it further than this consultation. Any help you might be able to offer would be very much appreciated. A list of potential roles is laid out on the Volunteer page, so if you think you might be a good fit then we can't wait to hear from you!