Monxton and Amport Village Hall (MAVH) Project Update

The Monxton and Amport Village Hall (MAVH) is progressing slowly due to a major issue recently discovered with the old foundations. As many will be aware, the Parish councils won two grants over two years ago, one from the Community Infrastructure Levy fund (CIL) for £345,000 and one from the Community Asset Fund (CAF) for £25,000, plus the villagers raised approx. £100,000 from various events and donations over the last five years.

We were very fortunate to obtain the services of a local architect, Luke Rose, based in Abbotts Ann, and we appointed Huttons, an Andover-based contractor, who have so far completed the demolition works and have proved to be very capable.

However, as some of you will already be aware, last week the chairmen of Monxton and Amport Parish councils met with our architect (Luke Rose) and main contractor (Huttons) to review the revised schedule of works and costs and the issue recently discovered by Huttons that the existing foundations of the old hall are not able to support the new structure (despite initial structural advice to the contrary). As a result, this has impacted our new village hall building costs with the addition of new foundations and walls on the west and north sides.

In short, the current budgeted costs of £480k, for which we have already secured funding, have now increased by approx. £100k.

These are to cover the very substantial foundations required due to the building being in a flood plain with a water table approx. one metre below ground level and to rebuild the walls on the west and north sides. In addition, building costs have increased by approx. 20% since we won the grant funding and we were delayed in starting the build due to Covid.

Therefore, we have discussed implementing a two-phase strategy for the build of the new village hall:

· first building phase: construct a new village hall shell comprising foundations, walls, floor and roof;

· second building phase: fitting out interiors including air source heat pump, plumbing, loos, electrics and kitchen. This second phase will take place at a point in time when we have raised additional funds for the relevant build out.

While £100k is a lot of money to raise, we expect that at least 50% will come from applying for additional funding from both the CIL and CAF funds grants on a matched funding basis leaving approx. £50K to be raised from other sources, including donations and fund-raising events, over the next 12-18 months, as the first phase will take approx. 12 months to complete.

Therefore, we will be asking villagers to suggest fund raising events next year which can generate meaningful sums.

To this end, if any parishioners would like to propose events or other funding sources, please respond to either Mike Cleugh (Chair Monxton PC) or Chris Harris (Chair Amport PC) via Facebook or email.

So, in summary, we will be moving forward with the first building phase of the new village hall immediately and trust we have the support of all parishioners.

For further information contact:

Mike Cleugh (Chair Monxton PC)

Chris Harris (Chair Amport PC)