December 2022
As the year draws to a close, I wanted to take the opportunity to wish you all Merry Christmas and provide a quick update on progress. The Management Committee continue to work tirelessly to try and deliver this project. Amongst the good news is that we have secured further grants towards the project from the National Lottery, the Heart of Bucks Community Foundation and the Shanley Foundation. With the cost of everything in life continuing to rise, these additional grants are extremely important.
The containers for the building have now been ordered and are scheduled to arrive in mid-January. Work will therefore start to put in place the groundworks and footings for the building in the first week of January. This will take 2-3 weeks and will require temporary fencing and matting in the area between the village hall and the play area. We thank all members and villagers in advance for their patience and cooperation whilst works are being undertaken. Once the building is in place we will proceed with the fit out as quickly as possible with a view to opening in the Spring. We will also be re-launching our website to reflect our exciting new branding so watch this space!
We are already incredibly fortunate to be supported in this project by so many of our local business and skilled individuals (see below) who are either providing materials or labour or are offering us their services at cost/discounted rates. Their generosity is hugely appreciated and makes a real difference to our ability to deliver this project. If you would like to get involved, we remain on the lookout for people to help with the fit-out or who may have other skills to offer. We are also continuing to collate our list of volunteers willing to work in the shop. The latter is particularly important now as it will dictate the hours we can open. If, therefore, you would like to join our growing list of volunteer workers please contact us here
Finally, ahead of advertising the role more formally in the New Year, we are inviting expressions of interest from anyone in the community who may be interested in the shop manager role. We have an open mind as to whether this should be an individual role or would be better suited to a job share arrangement between two, but it will be a salaried role and as this is a start-up business there is some flexibility available for the right candidate or candidates. So, if this is of interest to you please do contact Pat Pointer via the contact form to register your interest and discuss the role.