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"Neuadd Dyfi community annexe and sustainable heating scheme"

See details of the whole scheme below

To our architects website

August 2009

 

Early Success in grant applications! We have been awarded £300,000 CFAP and a further £10,000 from the Snowdonia national Park CAE fund for the community Annexe project. There is still a long way to our £771K target but it is a great start.

See CFAP for details of all the awards.

Other applications are in the pipeline

The purchase plans are progressing well with the new governing document agreed in principle by the Charity Commission and the transfer deeds terms by Gwynedd Council

 

Contact us for details

 

April 2009

As agreed at the AGM there was anOpen meeting To discuss the sale of theNeuadd Dyfi Tuesday February 24th at 7.30 PM at the Neuadd Dyfi

Gwynedd Council wishes to sell the Neuadd Dyfi. They are committed to ensure continued use as a community facility and will only sell with these safeguards in place.

The Management Committee and The Community Council have agreed that it would be appropriate to accept their offer for a number of reasons.The open meeting was a great success. It was well attended and incredibly positive. The proposal that the management committee should purchase the freehold was carried unanimously.

We have now instructed our solicitors to proceed. Searches are being done contracts are being prepared. We will now have to fundraise to help pay for it. Ideas are most welcome.

 

 

Click here for detail of "to buy or not to buy"

 

Latest News October 20th 2008

Planning permision granted

With a generous donation from the Aberdyfi players and AAI we now have designed a scaled down scheme is complete. Many thanks to the Peter Saunders Trust for their generous donation of £1500 towards the design fees. A planning application was submitted during the summer and we have just been notified that it has been approved!

http://www.lcrwarchitects.co.uk/

Our quantity surveyor has prepared various cost pans separating out the key elements.Funding could be sort for individual parts or the whole scheme which is about £600k

We are now preparing applications to Big Lottery, The Rural Development Plan and various other bodies for funding

The planning application can be viewed online

Planning Application Ref: NP5/50/109C Copy this reference and paste it into planning form found by
Clicking here

Other important News
Our lease runs out in 2014 and we have ongoing negotiations with Gwynedd Council to plan the future. Essentially there are two options:-
1) Take on a new lease
2) Purchase the freehold

Each option would be significantly different from the status quo.
Option 1 would be at a higher rent and with additional cost of insurance and maintenance. Gwynedd Council would continue to be the landlord.
Option 2 would involve a purchase cost (not agreed but what has been talked about is achievable) there would be the additional costs of insurance and maintenance.

The considered opinion is that community ownership is probably the best option with the community Council acting as custodian trustee. This is yet to be agreed and confirmed.

Gwynedd Council would prefer to sell the building.

 

The Latest designs as of 30/6/08

 

West elevation

South elevation

East elevation

North elevation

 

Plan

Plan 2

Decisions are being made,

Funding oportunities are being explored,

Meetings are scheduled.

The idea

The Neuadd Dyfi Community Annexe and sustainable heating system Statement of Justification

We have acknowledged that we need to present a significantly reduced scheme without losing the key elements. At the time of writing this is evolving, links to sketch layout and section are shown to the right.

In essence the community annexe is reduced to a large and very flexible space. This will be able to be divided into three smaller rooms with movable partitions. The area will be single story but foundations layout will be such that a second floor could be installed in the future

The doctors annexe is as planned before moved to the east

We would appreciate ideas and comments


The proposed elements are as follows in suggested order of priority. Should funding not be available for whole scheme the lower number will take priority

Element Priority Description
Community annexe
1 Large open plan room aprox 8 by 12 metres to include provision for dividers to make 3 rooms sprung maple floor small workshop/store/service area. Full width 2.4m corridor with connecting doors separating new build from old hall.
9 two room Dividers allowing 3 smaller rooms
Doctors surgery 2 as previously designed
Existing Stage area refurbishment
4 Purpose made handrail at front of stage that lifts up and drops down
8
new stage floor
6 New stage lighting grid + lighting, Aprox 900mm higher than existing
7 Additional stage refurbishment
Heating
3 Ground source heat pump installation
5 New air system for existing hall
10 Photovoltaic solar panels
11 Rain water harvesting

 

 

 

 

Any assistance or ideas would be most welcome contact Des here Click here for a pdf of the questionaire

Left hand side of rear Neuadd Dyfi showing location of the proposed annexe. Shed to be demolished

 

 

The Big Questions

Details of the original full scheme is presented at the bottom

Right hand side other outbuilding to be demolishedand rear lean to.

The Big Questions

What are the elements?

" Doctors Surgery
" New Heating System for Main hall
" Additional accommodation/facilities
" Acoustic treatment of the main hall

Why are we doing it?
" To continue improving our community hall by making it more versatile.
" To respond to the Health and Wellbeing strategy of both Gwynedd Council and the Welsh Assembly by maintaining key facility of doctors surgery in the village and providing a venue that encourages activities and events that have positive lifestyle outcomes for our community.
" Respond to the climate change challenge by producing a carbon neutral building that is pleasant to be in and cheap to run
" To generate extra income stream therefore make the halls operation more sustainable (in 2014 we will be responsible for all maintenance)

What will it cost?
Feasibility study indicates £1.1million this includes all fees VAT etc and future proofed for 2 years.

Can we raise this sort of money?
Initial research indicates it would be difficult

How can we reduce cost?

" Reduce the annexe footprint
" Build single storey
" Remove the "green" elements
" Don't bother with Acoustic element in existing hall
" Make sure as much as possible is VAT exempt

Who would fund it anyway?

We have received approval from Big lottery fund to apply which is a significant hurdle.
Various European funds such as the Community Facilities and Activities Programme are coming on stream.

What chances do we have anyway?
Who knows? We will never know if we don't try? The more support that comes from the village the better our chances are. We need to demonstrate need and positive outcomes. The more we align applications to national and local strategies such as Health and Wellbeing, low carbon building programme etc the better our chances are.

What is the way forward?
We cannot leave it mid stream as we have spent significant funds and should seek a return. Grants have been given which are being monitored. We need to fund further design by producing less ambitious options without losing the key elements. Our own funds are limited and should be held in reserve. The big lottery has a capital development programme that can be applied for which a grant is given under the People and Places programme solely to prepare the technical and design information that big lottery require for projects with capital expenditure. This is I think our best next step.

The ND management Committee has embarked on the design and hopefully construction of improved facilities at the rear of the hall

So far we have attracted grants from

1. Galluogi Gwynedd Fund

2 Combined Churches

3. National Park community fund for heating system plan

4 Gwynedd Sustainability Grant for heating system design.

5Gwynedd Rural Fund

and our own resources.

The Gwynedd Council Regeneration officer has been incredibly helpful.

We have commisioned Lionel Curtis and Rory Wilson to come up with some ideas of what is possible. The plans have been drawn up and can be seen by clicking the links below.

Architects website is here LCRW

Computer models of the frst scheme proposed

Click on image for larger version

Click on image for larger version

Plan of ground floor of annexe

full scheme proposed Sept 07

Plan of the first floor of annexe

updated Sept 07

elevations

updated Sept 0707

 

This is an ambitious scheme and with all costs Vat fees etc came out at over £1million. So an challenging target has been set.See the costs plan

If you wish to have more details of where the email me at mail@neuadddyfi.co.uk

About £10k has been spent on the production of the feasibility study and full design for the building of a community annexe at the rear of the Neuadd Dyfi to incorporate:-

" a doctors surgery (linked to larger surgery in Tywyn 4 miles away one doctor 5 mornings a week),
" police community post,
" Multi function rooms for meetings, exhibition and changing and workshop and storage space.
" The installation an environmentally sustainable heating and power system for the whole hall with the ambition of being carbon neutral.

The Neuadd Dyfi is an existing well used community hall which was partially redeveloped six years ago. The site is close to the primary school, post office, housing association homes.

The Annexe has been designed to make best use of the land to the rear of the hall. The existing buildings namely the old mortuary, shed and the lean-to will demolished.
The funding was for
" Architects,
" Structural engineer
" Heating and ventilation designer
" Acoustic engineer
" Quantity Surveyor

 

 

 



The above plans were updated after extensive consultation with users, community groups and others