Restoration & Improvements Appeal
Work on the project has been moving on in the past few months. Detailed drawings and specifications were created by the architect and sent to the Heritage Lottery Fund for approval. They passed without one single query - such a contrast to our previous experience! This meant we could go to tender and the five interested contractors all returned priced tenders. These ranged from £267,187 to £396,727 - ouch! Bearing in mind this was without fees on top ... After discussions with the architect and quantity surveyor, some of the work was scaled back to get it down to what was felt to be a realistic working budget of £229,500 for the delivery of project. Again plus fees, activities and other costs, bringing the total grant-eligible costs based on the lowest tender to £325,982. Anticipated funding for this is as follows:
| Heritage Lottery Fund second round application | 220,900 | ||||||
| Estimated VAT reclaim | 49,999 | ||||||
| Appeal Fund | 2,500 | Secured | |||||
| Norfolk Churches Trust | 7,000 | Secured | |||||
| The Garfield Weston Foundation | 10,000 | Secured | |||||
| The Geoffrey Watling Trust | 1,500 | Secured | |||||
| National Churches Trust (application in progress) | 20,000 | ||||||
| Local appeal, donations & other grants | 8,083 | ||||||
| Norfolk Churches Trust (possible additional grant) | 3,000 | ||||||
| Volunteer time | 3,000 | ||||||
| 325,982 | |||||||
So as you can see, there is still someway to go with the fundraising. Although we are requesting £20,000 from the National Churches Trust and a further £3,000 from the Norfolk Churches Trust, there are no guarantees we will get the full amount requested so will continue to pursue other grants and of course all the secured grants are dependent on a successful bid to the HLF (decision day 28th March). Put simply, we need to find £31,083. If all the funding is in place, there is a good chance work can begin in late summer.
Our first fundraising event of the year is a Ceilidh on Saturday 2nd March in Beighton Village Hall at 7:30pm. Tickets: £12.00 including refreshments. Tel: 01493 751637 or kashcroft58@gmail.com .
The next event is our Easter Eggstravaganza on Monday 22nd April followed by a car Treasure Hunt on Saturday 18th May. Of course, in the meantime any donations can be sent to Mrs Kate Ashcroft, 4 Ash Tree Road, Moulton St Mary, Norwich NR13 3NN. Please make cheques payable to: PCC Beighton & Moulton St Mary.
Kate Ashcroft, PCC Treasurer & Fabric Officer