Background

In last year’s parish poll you gave the Parish Council a strong mandate (by a three to one majority) to go ahead with plans to sell the land adjacent to the Parish Hall to generate funds towards modernising the Hall and replacing the dilapidated and uninsurable old pavilion.

Sale of Land

We could not realistically put this land on the market until the District Inspector’s report had come out. Now that his report has been published we are busy obtaining valuations from various interested parties.

Parish Hall Facelift

If you attended the Centenary Celebrations in December and January you may have seen the various alternative modernisation schemes. We are now trying to mix and match the best features from them. We are also looking at transferring the day to day running of the hall to CASCA, whose charitable status should enable the Hall to qualify for what improvement grant money is still available

New Pavilion

As I wrote in the Parish Magazine in February and July last year, we have been working with the Sports Club on an application to the Sports Council for lottery money towards the construction of a new pavilion.

Tennis Courts

The village tennis club is enjoying a successful period. Last year, its first year in the Apsley League, it won promotion and has asked the Parish Council for permission to construct an additional court.

Worried?

I know that some of you are concerned about the possibility of unsuitable activities or developments on the field. We in the Parish Council have been to great lengths to try to understand your concerns, devoting almost the whole of our monthly meeting in May to the subject. Your concerns, and the actions we are taking to address them, are given in the form of questions and answers further on in this leaflet.

And finally

The Parish Council has been prudently building up a surplus of funds for several years against the day when the old pavilion comes to the end of its useful life. The time is now ripe to use those funds, together with grant money, and contributions from the sports club and from the sale of the Parish Hall site. We hope that the new pavilion and the renovated Parish Hall will be a credit to the village and foster the enjoyment of sport and community activities for us and generations to come.