Highlights: Planning Application for the village hall has been submitted! Still waiting for it to be live on the East Lothian Council website, but a real big step forward!
The committee is pursuing an official VAT exemption certificate from HMRC, base on our charitable status.
Points from the community regarding bike racks in the village, and on disabled access to the new hall across the village have been noted.
Big news for the new village hall – final Planning drawings have been submitted to East Lothian Council!
We’ve been really close to submitting for a few weeks now, but after a last few tweaks, we are finally there. Our architects, CSY, made the submission on 6th June and you can view the full document set here.
Our application is now live on the East Lothian Planning website. ELC have split it into two applications, one for demolition of the old hall, and one for the new building. The posts are open to public comment until 1st September.
So now we have to wait! We’ve already had a few questions back regarding planting in the grounds. The committee will continue to work with CSY to answer any questions that come up from the council regarding Planning, and work towards Warrant drawings will soon be under way.
The OCA SCIO Committee has recently been reviewing rental charges for use of the Village Hall by community residents, and we would like to announce details of exemptions from rental charges.
There will be NO hall rental charges for events booked/held by a community member/friend of Oldhamstocks, provided the follow criteria are met:
All other hall usage will continue to be charged at £7 per hour.
If anyone holding an event wishes to make a donation towards the upkeep of the hall, these will be most welcome.
If you have any questions about this, please contact the Secretary at info@oldhamstocks.org.uk
Highlights: Committee agreed to instruct CSY to go ahead with Planning Application!
The latest report from our QS showed substantial rises in costs since the first estimates, 2 and half years ago. The committee has spent a great deal of time going through costs with the QS and the increases are now in line with what would be expected, considering the national levels of inflation, particularly in the construction industry.
The committee discussed the need for a small petrol generator to be kept on site. This is for emergencies only, so that the hall can be a reliable warm space during extended power cuts. It will work in tandem with solar panels and a battery, and can therefore be smaller than would otherwise be needed.
Highlights: Committee physically pegged out and decided upon an amended land purchase area, based on concerns over possible land slippage from the steep slope at the back border. New border will be few metres lower down.
Meeting planned with CSY to make some adjustments to drawings that will be soon submitted for Planning Application with ELC.
Funds finally transferred from old OCA accounts to new OCA SCIO one, meaning that the first deposit into the interest bearing Community Benefit Fund can be made.
East Lothian Council have been in touch with the various community groups in the area, asking to pass on information on the launch of their Customer Survey.
Please have a look through their flyer, and if you wish to share your views, you can complete the survey at www.eastlothian.gov.uk/customer-survey.
Highlights: OCA SCIO, as a charity, has access to up to £80k of grant money from Local Energy Scotland for any measures that reduce the carbon footprint of our new hall. Should enable us to really maximise our use of renewable energy.
The new bank account for OCA SCIO has finally been opened! This means funds can start to be transferred from OCA, and we can then make our first substantial payment into the Community Benefit Fund.
Highlights: First proper committee meeting since the AGM, as such tasks for all members were formally defined. Dates for committee meetings for the whole year were decided. Letter to Savills regarding land purchase is on hold, awaiting further details, but this does not specifically hold up Planning application for the hall.
Our village hall architects, Camerons Strachan Yuill (CSY) joined us after the OCA and OCA SCIO AGMs today, to present an update on the design of our new hall. They spent a full hour taking us from the basic design that was selected by the community last year, through several points of detail that OCA and CSY have developed, based on community feedback, such and storage space and WC facilities.
Neil and Douglas finished the presentation by unveiling a 1:100 scale physical model of the hall!
If you did not make the meeting, (or if you did, but would like a closer look!) you can view the whole presentation slide set PDF at your own pace.
Alternatively, to get (almost!) the full presentation experience, you can view the slides as videos with the full audio commentary from Neil and Douglas: CSY slides and audio, part 1 / CSY slides and audio, part 2.
Finally, the scale model will stay on view in the hall for you to view whenever you might be passing!
Any feedback or questions are more than welcome. Please email info@oldhamstocks.org.uk.
Highlights: Well attended AGMs including presentation from CSY architects, showing the up to date plans for the new village hall, including a scale model!
Followed by first meeting of the new committee. Members elected office bearers.
