Welcome to the next edition of the Parracombe Community Trust Quarterly newsletter for 2024, which aims to bring you the latest news, updates and events from each project / committee.
Before you get stuck into some of the brilliant things happening around the village outlined below, we would like to flag that we’re currently preparing for our AGM.
This is likely to take place on in December and the invite, along with the annual report / director election documents will be with you at least three weeks ahead of the AGM. Keep an eye out for those coming soon to an inbox near you!
Until then, grab a cuppa, and read on to find out what’s been happening over the last few months…
What’s new at the Pavilion Shop and Cafe?
The Pavilion Stores and Café, our Village Community shop, was extremely pleased to welcome Danni Weekly in July to work alongside Teresa Tucker in their roles as Shop Managers. Danni has quickly shown she is a great fit to our shop team and we are all enjoying working with her.
We continue to be very optimistic about the longevity of our Community business as sales are above last financial year to date. Our aim continues to be that sales revenue covers our expenditure with any small profits made being either invested back in the business or for Community assets.
The Pavilion Stores and Café relies on local people buying from us regularly. We would like to extend our thanks to all of our loyal customers as always and to those who have donated items from their gardens this summer. Whilst we can never compete with the big brands’ buying power, we always source and buy stock with a focus on value and we are sure our customers recognise the convenience of buying locally. We continue to strive to be relevant for all of our community and welcome suggestions as to how we could make any improvements. You can leave a message in our postbox or talk directly to our volunteers and Managers if you have any ideas.
There was an extremely successful Apple Pressing event on the shop patio last weekend. All of the equipment used was provided by Conrad Hewitt and Sophie Sheehan who were on hand to turn apples into juice with some trusty volunteers including the hardworking Harley. Conrad and Sophie were very knowledgeable on how to use the press and gave tips on how to make cider. Thank you to Conrad and Sophie for your generosity. Of course, while the apples were being pressed into juice, many of us took the opportunity to sample Liz’s delicious apple cake and cheese scones.
Our Community shop is only as successful as it is due to the commitment of our amazing volunteers. More volunteers have been taking on key responsibilities such as the newspaper order and collection rota. Other volunteers have been assisting by stepping in to place supplier orders when the Managers have taken holidays.
We have welcomed two new committee members, Nick Constable and Si Young and said Goodbye to another: The Committee would like to thank Nick Backhouse for his contribution whilst on the Shop Committee.
If you feel you could play a part in continuing to move The Pavilion Stores and Café forward, whether as a volunteer and/or as a committee member, please come along to our Open Evening on 7th November 6-730pm. It will be a chance to have a chat with existing volunteers and Committee members over a glass of wine and some nibbles.
We are currently busy getting ready for the upcoming festive season. You might not believe it but our Managers had to make decisions on what Christmas confectionery to stock by the end of July this year! You will be able to have a sneak preview of what items we will be stocking for Christmas at the Open Evening on 7th November. You can also find out about Christmas tree orders, and Christmas Meat and Essential items pre orders. Why don’t you make your life easy by picking up what you need from your friendly local village Community shop rather than battling the crowds elsewhere?
And, of course, we will be holding our annual late night Christmas Shopping event on Thursday 5th December from 5.30 to 730pm. Mulled Wine, Mince Pies, Carols and Santa will be making a visit too! We look forward to seeing you there.
A quick update from the Affordable Housing Project
As this update goes to press we await final approval of a Section 106 Planning Notice giving legal force to our Local Lettings Policy. This process has taken time because it has required input from North Devon Council (as housing authority), Exmoor National Park (as planning authority), our housing association partner Hastoe (who will manage construction and tenancies), lawyers for the site owner (who is selling us the land) and lawyers representing ourselves (as the new freeholders).
We are hopeful that the Section 106 will be issued within the next two weeks. At that point our planning permission will be fully verified, and discussions can move to seeking tenders and a funding bid to Homes England. This whole process has taken much longer than we thought. But it has been robust and thorough and above all ensures that local people will get priority when North Devon Homes comes to allocate tenancies.
If anyone would like to be considered for one of the homes, it is vitally important that they register their interest with Devon Home Choice below if they have not already done so.
Village Hall
Over the last year, the Hall continues to be well supported by many varied groups and we would like to take this opportunity to thank both the organisers and participants for their continued and valuable participation; without you we have no purpose!
This has been a momentous year for us with the realisation that the Hall is heading towards end of life for both the roof and back wall! We know that we are on standby for more patching up to get us through. The focus of attention has been with the Hall development group who have been working hard with several community consultations; meetings with ENPA and architects to come up with mutually acceptable plans for the renovation and extension of our tired but much-loved building. We are grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) for the funding to get us to this stage; we are sadly behind schedule but making progress. We had hoped that the last plan version with a flat roof extension (as agreed at the Public Consultation) would be the last.
Although this Community Trust report officially covers the year only to March 31st 2024, we felt it would be useful to bring you all bang up to date. In June, we learned that ENPA had finally agreed – with an insistence on a pitched roof – to the latest plans which you will be able to see at the AGM. Although they are not what we expected, this final amendment was a stipulation by ENPA to obtain planning consent and we had no choice.
Now that we have secured consent, the focus moves to the Strategic Development Group to include preparation for funding and phases for building. By the end of this year, we will have a full report from our structural engineer which will be passed to the building control company. This detail will inform the quantity surveyor so that accurate costings can be worked out and the detailed building control drawings can be produced by our architects.
Then will come the tendering process. All this has been paid for by the NLCF and has moved us into a position where we will accurately know final costs. The Fundraising Group will then be able to apply for funding for the majority of the grand total. This is when the real work in the community will start; showing that we can raise some of the funds through a wide variety of functions. We will, of course, be keeping you right up to date!
…and that’s a wrap for this update!
Please do let us know via email if you have any feedback on how we could improve our emails or general communications with Parracombe Trust Members.
Thank you,
Parracombe Community Trust