Hello again and hoping all is well with everyone. This miserable winter is gradually and hopefully beginning to draw to a close. I was looking soon to have another meeting at Springwater Church Cafe but so far had no notification it is open again at present. Much hard work has been ongoing and we have accumulated more tools, some very interesting ones.

As you are all aware although we have planning permission, we do still have criteria to reach such as supplying SODC with an arboricultural method statement, surface water drainage together with foul water drainage approval all of which are chargeable by SODC so we have been quoted to allow £3650 to cover these costs. Thus, we still need the services of the architect whose fee is included in this figure but mostly the cost is to SODC.

Progress may appear to be slow coming along but it has to be remembered that we are in the lucky position to eventually own our building on land leased for 25 years. Whereas the vast majority of Sheds all over the country are mostly rented premises with perhaps little security of tenure with the services already laid on. We are starting from scratch which takes much time, effort and money.

We have been working on a draft lease as we are hoping to draw one up between us which is both favourable to ourselves and Peppard War Memorial Hall without the need for the involvement of solicitors as we have been quoted anything from £250 per hr. up to £410.

So you can see much work is still ongoing behind the scenes to meet our objective but what we really need is funding and my fundraisers are working very hard to bring money in but with the turndown in the economy and people tightening their belts it is become increasingly difficult at present. We have accumulated around £17,000 of which fees mentioned above will have to come out of so if anyone has any ideas of where we might obtain donations I will be pleased to hear from you.

We may have a start up project in the Spring as Springwater Church have asked me if they supply the materials can I get together a few people on the premises particularly interested in learning woodwork or already proficient to build them a few benches and tables with attached benches. If anyone is interested in tackling this please contact me during March.

Hopefully too during the summer months we can begin thinking about clearing and levelling of the site with a view to inserting the concrete pads necessary to take the weight of the building but again comes back to money but fear not we will get there whatever it takes.

SO PLEASE BE PATIENT

I have an excellent team in my committee plus are so lucky to have two capable fundraisers.

Sheila Maughan, Founder & Chair SHEDQUARTERS