Cottenham Parish Council – Village Hall

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About four years after a Working Party was set up to identify a solution to our ageing, inaccessible and inefficient Village Hall, the Parish Council has approved the plan to replace it and build a new Early Years Nursery too.

To be built on either end of the Ladybird Pre-School, which will stay, work will start on the new buildings in December with completion expected September 2020.

The project will be funded from Council reserves, the ongoing £1/week/Band D precept and s106 developer contributions from the new houses being built on Oakington and Rampton Roads and those already built on Racecourse View.

Background & Current Position

The current Village Hall plans are the result of a Value Engineering round to reduce costs after the competitive tenders all came in too high for us to afford. Although a little smaller, the Hall design is very similar to the plans we discussed in late 2018.

A sizeable Lobby / Reception area provides separate access routes to the Parish Council Office, Hall and Club space with stairs and lift access to the First Floor.

 

The First Floor is a fully-flexible open plan space with a bar and balcony with views over the playing fields.

 

 

To be built on the site of the existing Hall, the Ground Floor has space for a Hall of similar size to today’s main hall (zone 2).

 

It is extendable to include a bar space that can be operated independently as a Club space.

 

With dedicated storage spaces, the Hall can support a number of regular users and be available for casual hire.

 

A portakabin alongside the Sports Pavilion will allow Kids Club to operate throughout the works.

 

Parish Council meetings will also be held in the Sports Pavilion.

 

 With permission to be open all year round from 7.30am to 6.30pm plus Saturday mornings, the Nursery should provide a much-needed support service in the village for working families with young children.

Pre-School space:
Capacity for 24 x 4-5 year olds.

Toddler space: 
Capacity for 10 x 2-3 year olds.

Baby space:

  • Capacity for 11 x 0-2 year olds.
  • Milk kitchen, sleeping area, laundry

 

 

Staff space

  • Staff-room
  • Manager office
  • Kitchen / pantry

Operation

Initial licence to be offered to Trustees of the Ladybird Pre-School (subject to satisfactory Business Plan and Ofsted approval)

The Ladybird Pre-School will continue separately throughout the works and afterwards alongside the Nursery.

 

 

As part of the project, there will be improvements to the access road and car park, including more public charging points for electric vehicles.

To minimise disruption during the works, we will have a portakabin alongside the Pavilion Club Room.  The car parks will be subjected to several changes and seriously disrupted during the works, although some parking will be maintained.

Costing up to approximately £4 million plus loan interest, the project will be financed: £400K+ from CPC reserves, Supplemented by £2.8 million loan (funded by the “£1/week/Band D equivalent” precept), Offset by up to £600K s106 “Indoor Facility” and around £900K “Early Years” contributions.

Brochures will soon be available for provisional availability from October 2020.

If you would like to have your name added to a brick, visible forever on an outside wall, contact CPC: clerk@cottenhampc.org.uk