The parish council at an extraordinary parish council meeting last night formally agreed to apply to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for permission to borrow up to £160,000 towards the proposed extension to the Pinewood Community Hall.
Chairman of the Community Hall Management Committee Cllr. Norman Smith advised the meeting that the current project costs are expected to be £220,000. The hall has £80,000 that it will be putting towards the project with the remaining £140,000 is hopefully to be funded via a loan from the Public Works Loan Board.
By applying for approval to borrow £160,000 it gives the council the option to fund any increase in costs since the valuations were provided last October. He said that "even though the council has applied for this additional funding it will not make any final decisions as to where any additional project costs would be funded from until tenders have been returned and more definite costings are available. This just gives the council two options i) to fund any increased costs from its remaining reserves or ii) to fund via an additional loan.
With loan repayments for £140,000 expected to be in the region of £7588 per year the council has said that it will not be funding these repayments from the parish precept, they will instead be met from the additional revenue that extra hirings to the newly extended lounge will bring in. Cllr. Smith confirmed that the hall is to retain sufficient funds to cover the loan payments whilst additional hirers are sought. Additional revenue from the Friday members bar is also to help off-set the repayments and the membership scheme is to be opened up to those living in the Sprites area.