The Town Council called an extra-ordinary meeting on Tuesday 24 September 2019 to consider presentations from Bingham’s Rugby Club to re-develop the aged Pavilion at Wynhill which would provide enhanced facilities for this already popular community and local group facility and to hear Rushcliffe Borough Council’s plans to include a 300-seat community hall at the site of Bingham’s new leisure centre off Chapel Lane.
The drawings for the Pavilion show that the capacity will more than double to circa 180. Through the creation of 2 partitioned function rooms which will provide spatial flexibility as well as a shared bar. There will also be a new kitchen and a small meeting room as well as updated and more extensive changing room and storage facilities which will allow for expansion and more than one sport to be changed at the same time as well as potentially providing a base for the Scouts.
The build cost is in the region of £600,000. The Town Council is being asked to support in principle an application of £400,000 from the Community Chest. Grant applications will be made to the Rugby Football Union and Sports England as the anticipated major funding sources of the £200,000 shortfall.
The Rugby Club lease the Pavilion from the Town Council with volunteers running the Pavilion on a ‘not for profit’ basis. The redeveloped Pavilion will remain a Town Council asset.
The community hall at Chapel Lane will be 1 of a 3-zone development on what is locally known as the former Tesco site. The zones will consist of leisure/community/shared space through 1 central reception with a café area. The community hall will have a high ceiling of 6m to provide improved acoustics and will sit 300. No kitchen facilities have been incorporated into the design at this initial stage.
The build cost is estimated at £1,200,000; with Rushcliffe Borough Council proposing that the Community Chest reserve is used to fund the development.
Both groups stressed that they were not in competition with one another and that there is potential for both community facilities to be well supported and to thrive as Bingham continues to grow over the next decade.
Almost 40 members of the public attended the meeting and opinions were submitted via email. The Mayor, Councillor John Stockwood facilitated the public session and there were plenty of questions asked and comments and observations submitted.
The Mayor detailed what the Town Council is being asked to consider – The Community Chest is a fund of developers’ contributions from the housing developments that have taken place in Bingham. The monies are held by Rushcliffe Borough Council. The consideration is whether to support and fund both community facilities from Bingham’s Community Chest of £1,200,000 and from an application by the Town Council to the Public Work Loans Board for £400,000 and/or from Town Council reserves if they are not already committed.
The Public Works Loan repayments would raise the precept. Depending on how long the loan is taken over. Interest rates are currently low; so, taken over say 25 years the total repayment amount is likely to be in the region of £467,000 which equates on a Band D house of an increase of £6.40 per year to £79.93 (based upon this year’s precept) to fund both projects.
The redevelopment of Wynhill would happen first and then the Chapel Lane community hall.
The Town Council agreed to support both projects; to support up to £400,000 from the Community Chest for the Town Pavilion community facilities and to commit to providing up to £1,200,000 for the Chapel Lane community facilities funded by Community Chest and a Public Works Loan Board.
The Town Council will continue to discuss and progress the developments through its meetings and provide updates via its website and its monthly Buttercross article.