The story of the new village hall

A committee is formed

Planning is granted

January 25th 2016 was the next landmark date when the planning application was submitted to Bradford Council.  There were no objections, but we were asked by one resident to address the problem of ‘nefarious acts’ taking place on the land where the new hall would be built!  Thankfully, Cullingworth Village Council fully supported our application and it was approved by Bradford Council. The architects drew up a list of recommended construction firms who would be invited to tender.   

Bryan Hobson retired as Chair of the Village Hall Management Committee and Janet Toner was appointed as the new Chair.  The Renewal Committee continued to be chaired by Jill Logan. 

We hosted a debate on May 16th 2016 at the hall on the upcoming EU Referendum.  Philip Davies MP (Conservative MP for Shipley) set out the case for a LEAVE vote and Richard Corbett MEP (Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber) campaigned for the REMAIN vote.  Tickets were free and the hall was packed to capacity with 200 people attending.  The Buy-A-Brick Campaign was launched at this event and a total of £433 was raised through the bar and donations.  At the end of the debate, we asked for a show of hands and the majority supported the LEAVE vote. 

A Quantity Surveyor (QS) had been appointed to work closely with the architects to try and bring the build cost down to £750,000.  A civil engineering firm was appointed to design the foundation and Phase II of the topographical survey and a drainage survey was commissioned.  David Wilson Homes had commenced building houses at the Manywells site.  The release of the £411k S106 money was linked to the sale and completion of houses – the first payment of £304k was expected in summer 2017 when 60 of the 234 houses should be completed.  The Village Council accepted our request for a grant of £400 to help towards the cost of the Quantity Surveyor.

An application for grant funding was submitted to Garfield Weston in September and another to the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation in November 2016.  The Trustees of the Village Hall discussed whether they were prepared to risk taking out a loan to fill any funding gap.  The grant application for Power to Change was proving exceptionally hard and time-consuming and we missed the first deadline.   Discussions began with the Pre-school to establish the terms of their tenancy in the new building. 2016 local fundraising events generated a fantastic £7,721.   

2017 started well with a pledge from Garfield Weston for a grant of £35,000 towards construction costs and Bernard Sunley pledged £10,000.  We successfully applied to the Co-op Community Fund, receiving £317 in the first round.  The revised estimate of build costs had come in at £859,104 – all the items from the original specification were included, plus some we had thought would be a fit-out cost.  The construction time was an estimated 44 weeks.  We had a funding gap of £298,000.

The lease is agreed and a big grant is awarded

Bradford Council agreed to very attractive (from the Village Hall’s perspective!) terms on the lease of land at Lodge St: a 125-year term at an annual ground rent of £350 plus VAT.  The Power to Change application went in requesting £244,000 and we passed through the 1st round in July 2016; the second more detailed application was submitted for the 2nd round. We passed and then met their Assessor who would submit a report to the 3rd and final round of the application process. The Trustees had agreed to the village hall taking out a loan up to £50,000 – this was important to help support

the Power to Change application and fill the funding gap.  Yet more information was supplied to support the application. 

Cllr Simon Cooke discussed the Village Hall’s funding gap with the Director of Finance at Bradford Council who said the Council could offer a £96,000 bridging loan at 0% interest to cover the release of S106 money (so that we could pay the builder before the houses at Manywells were sold) and a £50,000 15-year low interest rate loan via the Public Works Loan Board – which was significantly lower rates than the Charity Bank was offering.  Fantastic news!

21st November 2017 was the next landmark date.  Power to Change approved our application.  You cannot begin to understand the emotional relief!  We were the first village hall to whom they had awarded funding.  However, one of the conditions required the land lease to be signed with Bradford Council before 31st January 2018.  Our solicitor said such a lease normally takes 4-5 months.  Cllr Simon Cooke asked the Head of Legal Services at Bradford Council if this lease could be given priority otherwise the Power to Change funding may be withdrawn.  She agreed and the lease was signed 2 days before the deadline. 

By the end of 2017 we were drawing up a list of fit-out items and thinking about how these could be funded.  An amazing total of £23,677 had been raised so far through local fundraising since the beginning of the Renewal Committee. 

HMRC queried our application for VAT exemption – thankfully it was eventually accepted. 

The architects sent out invitations to tender to 7 building contractors and 4 responded.  Jill Logan and Kathryn Toledano met the architects at 2pm on 9th May 2017 to open the tenders.  We had raised £860,000 to build the new village hall – would we have enough?  This was the order in which we opened the tenders –

1. £990,099 at 36 weeks
2. £1,058,787 at 30 weeks
3. £949,091 and 24 weeks
4. Bermar Building Co Ltd - £859,691 at 22 weeks

Can you imagine our relief!  We went to the pub to celebrate.

Breaking ground

Bermar moved on site 9th July 2017.  The site manager, Steve Brundle, was a local from Cullingworth.

The Breaking Ground Raffle fundraiser was won by Louie Sykes (aged 9) and Julie Walmsley who broke the ground at 5pm on 25th July 2017.   

Kathryn Toledano attended the monthly site meetings with the architects, Chris Ing the Quantity Surveyor and senior people from Bermar – these discussions addressed the ‘unforeseen’ stuff!

‘Which bit of we do not have the money do you not understand’ became our mantra at these meetings.  Examples were:

• Drainage – a larger attenuation tank was required, but with a bit of maths calculation effort, Yorkshire Water, the architects and Bradford Council agreed to the smaller tank.
• Storage cupboards – the cost had gone up, so we cancelled them
• Hearing loop – the cost had gone up by £2,000 so we did some research and found an alternative cheaper solution which Bermar agreed to install
• Telecoms connection – not budgeted for and would cost £1,600 so we did some research and BT installed fibre-only at a cost of £71.

However, discussions between the architects and quantity surveyor with Bermar had been unable to reduce the cost over-run against budget.  We had to apply to Power to Change for additional funding. 

The doorstep campaign for the Buy-a-Brick fundraiser found us a member of the local Freemasons – he was very keen to help and this resulted in a grant to purchase the catering kitchen white goods.  The commercial agents, Mark Brearley & Co, were tasked to find a tenant for the café space.  By the end of the 2018 the local fundraising total was over £29,155 and Cullingworth Village Council presented their 2018 Community Spirit Award to the Renewal Committee for all their efforts in building a new village hall – which was very nice.

Construction was coming to an end in January 2019 and the snagging List was prepared.  Power to Change awarded an additional grant of £20,833 which meant we could cover the revised construction costs.  The agent had found a café tenant – Danny Coleccia – who set up the lovely danchinos Italian coffee lounge with homemade cake, fresh pizza and gelato.  The white elephant picture from the old village hall was spruced up, reframed and re-hung in the foyer of the new village hall – read the history of the old village hall to discover why we have a white elephant.

The building was formally transferred from Bermar to Cullingworth Village Hall on 13th February 2019, still to be fitted-out.  We did an Open House on Saturday 16th and invited everyone in Cullingworth to come and have a look around.  Trestle tables were put up in the entrance, covered with post-it notes of items we needed to complete the fit-out.  These ranged from new tea towels and mugs for the kitchen to building a loft and constructing the kitchen units.  The response was amazing.  Many people came and virtually every post-it note was snapped up. 

Special mentions to RAP and the Richmond family who constructed the kitchen units one weekend and Andy Allen who designed and built the very useful loft in the chair storeroom.  Also, the members of Cullingworth Gardening Club who designed and planted the lovely bed next to the Preschool office and volunteers who cut the massive hedge in the pouring rain.

Opening day arrives

Preschool started their summer term 2019 in their new, dedicated premises.  The lovely danchinos café opened in June 2019 and volunteers built their outside seating area shortly afterwards.

We had done it.  Within 6 years a village of volunteers had designed, built and funded a new Village Hall.  The overall cost was about £1m.  So many people and local businesses contributed effort, enthusiasm and money.  Thank you.

Thank yous!