Archives 2019

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It’s certainly autumnal outside and walking around Palmers Field and the great walks around the village it’s lovely to see the changing colours. This time of year also means it’s time for our AGM, which is happening on Wednesday the 30th of October at 7.30pm. 

Everyone is very welcome and after the formal business, there’ll be plenty of time to chat and answer any of your questions. 

Consultation

At the moment we’re busy in our consultation phase. This involves consultation with groups and organisations within the village and we’re continuing our research by looking at other projects which are similar to the vision we have for Palmers Field. We’re also having a series of meetings with key stakeholders to show them the initial designs we’ve had from our architects and get their feedback.  We’ll keep you fully informed of our progress. 

New Website

We’re delighted to say our website is going through a transformation with a new modern look and hopefully, you’ll find it easier to navigate and get the latest information. Although there’s more to do we’re really happy with the progress and incredibly grateful indeed to Simon Godfrey for all his help. Have a look:

www.ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk

As always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

We hope we’ll see you at the AGM next week and in the meantime, if you’re not already, please do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links below. 

Many thanks 


Malcolm Pryce, 
Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

It was great to see so many of you at our Cheese and Wine evening last month, and although many were not able to make it, we were very grateful to receive so many kind messages of support. Thank you again to John and Marianne Adey for hosting the evening and to Mark and Sue from the Post Office Cafe for looking after us so well and subsidising the food and wine. We were also delighted to be joined by members of the Palmer family who we were able to thank publicly for donating the field in the first place, because without them, there would be no project. We’ve had a busy summer and with the lease signed for Palmers Field, we’re now in the middle of the next stage of our project. For those who were there you’ll be aware of what we are doing, but here’s a quick recap for those who were not able to make it. 

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Design Drawings
We’re delighted to have received initial drawings for a single multipurpose building. This was as a result of receiving use cases from all the stakeholders and working with our architects to produce the first set of drawings. We have now shown these to the stakeholders and over the next month, we’ll be having a series of meetings with them to get their feedback. We’ll then make any necessary revisions to the designs and show them to the parish council, our supporters and then the wider village.

Consultation
Meanwhile thanks to an Awards4All grant we have engaged Alex Lambert to undertake a formal community consultation. Alex will be helping the Trustees and Core Team put together a comprehensive report that will be used to present to Aldbourne Parish Council, the wider village, core grant funders as well as those offering private donations. On the subject of funding, we’re starting to work on a series of events starting with an ARC Curry and Quiz night in February and lots more to come, so look out for details soon. 

Core Team
I’m delighted to say that we’ve had many new offers of help since we signed the lease and have already welcomed Mike Rodd and Chris Davis to our core team. We’re thrilled that they will be able to add their talents to what is already a very strong team. Whatever your talent and regardless of how little time you think you may be able to offer, we’d love to hear from you.

Congratulations
We are thrilled that Aldbourne Band came 9th in the British Open Brass Band Championships in Birmingham last Saturday.  We are so lucky to have such an outstanding band in our village and how wonderful that they will hopefully be a part of our project with a fantastic rehearsal space. They rushed back to perform the last village Pond Concert on Saturday and here’s one of our core team members, Alan Watson, sharing the exciting news of their achievement. 

And Finally…..
We are so excited to be moving ahead and delighted with the current momentum of the project. We look forward to keeping you up to date every step of the way and as always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in touch with us at: info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

As always we’re keen to spread the word so if there is anyone else you’re aware of who may like to receive this newsletter, just ask them to email us or click the Sign Up To Our Newsletter Button on the website. Also please do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links below. 

Many thanks 

Malcolm Pryce,  Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

As you’ll be aware we’re very excited to have officially signed the lease with Aldbourne Parish Council for Palmer’s Field. Although the lease was actually signed the week before, we held a short ceremony last Thursday evening to mark the occasion officially:Attending the ceremony were the Chair of Aldbourne Parish Council, Alison Edmonds, Parish Councillors, the Chair of ARC, Malcolm Pryce with ARC Trustees and supporters.

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Alison Edmonds said “On behalf of Aldbourne Parish Council it gives me great pleasure to sign the lease with the trustees for Aldbourne Recreation Centre for the development of sports and recreation facilities in our village. This an exciting project which will benefit the whole community. On behalf of the Parish Council, I wish the group every success”.

Malcolm Pryce, replied saying “We are very excited about having reached this stage and I’d like to thank, the Palmer family who donated the field in 2005, Aldbourne Parish Council, the sporting and recreational groups that we’ve been talking to over the last few years, as well as the ARC team of Trustees, volunteers and friends. We are also very grateful for the support, in the form of seed grants, from Medlock Trust, Marlborough Area Board, Wroughton Solar, Awards4All and Tesco. Our next steps for the proposed multi-use facility is to continue consultations, firm up design requirements, establish an operational management plan and of course raise the necessary funds.” 

We are planning to celebrate with a Wine and Cheese evening at the Malt House on South Street, (by kind permission of John and Marianne Adey), at 8pm on Friday 30th of August. Parish Councillors, ARC Trustees and Core Team members as well as all supporters and recipients of this newsletter are invited, so look out for your personal invitation which we’ll be posting to you before the end of the week.

It’ll be a celebration of how far we’ve come, and it’ll also be a great opportunity to tell you a little more about where we go from here. We’ll talk about our plans as well as outlining an estimated timeline for the project. 

We will also be a part of the Aldbourne Carnival again this year, so do look out for us on the Green on Saturday the 31st of August.

We really hope you’ll be able to make it to the Wine and Cheese Evening and in the meantime as always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.ukMany thanks 
Malcolm Pryce, Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

As you will know, it’s really exciting that the lease on Palmers Field, between Aldbourne Parish Council and Aldbourne Recreation Centre, has been agreed. 

I’m pleased to say that the lease will be formally signed on Thursday the 15th of August at 7.15pm at the bottom of Southward Football Field. ARC Trustees, Members of Aldbourne Parish Council will be there along with friends and we hope to be joined by a reporter from the local press. This will also be a great moment to formally unveil our new noticeboard. 

We would also like to invite you to come along to this important milestone, which will also give us an opportunity to thank you again for your support and interest in the project. 

Meanwhile…

We are spending the summer talking to different groups in the village to share design ideas and we hope to be able to show the wider village concept designs sometime in the autumn.  

We are also formalising our conversations with groups in the village which will form part of the funding application process. We’ve been very grateful to the Marlborough Area Board who have given us a community engagement grant to be able to do this. 

With the project gaining momentum, we really appreciate offers of help and would welcome anyone to join us, so please do get in touch.  As always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Also, please do let us know if there is anyone else who would like to receive these newsletters, and don’t forget we are active on social media, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links below. 

I do hope you can make it to our signing ceremony next Thursday and in the meantime thanks again for your continued support. 

Many thanks 
Malcolm Pryce, Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

The Lease has been agreed…

We’re delighted to tell you that at Wednesday night’s Aldbourne Parish Council meeting, it was agreed unanimously by Councillors to agree the terms of the lease on Palmers Field, between the Council and Aldbourne Recreation Centre. 

What Next?

This is very exciting indeed and it means we can now progress to the formal design stage. 

Firstly though, there’ll be a formal lease signing ceremony and the unveiling of the new ARC Noticeboard sometime over the next couple of weeks. Everyone is very welcome to come along and witness this momentous occasion, so we’ll let you know exactly where and when in another email very soon. 

The really hard work starts now, and we have already instructed the architect to draw up some initial designs for the new building that will go on Palmers Field, along with the other facilities we plan for the area. 

We will keep you fully informed with our plans every step of the way and we are aware that there are some people who are keen to help in some way and we welcome any suggestions or offers. We are certainly looking to expand our core team members so please do get in touch. 

We’ll be back in touch soon with details of the lease signing ceremony and what we’ll be doing over the next few months.

In the meantime many thanks again to all our supporters for all their continued commitment.

Malcolm Pryce,  Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

Welcome to our June Newsletter and despite the recent rain it certainly seems that summer is now here and it’s been great to see so much activity on Palmers and Southward Fields.

It’s been a hive of activity with the Exercise: Digging Band of Brothers as well as all the usual sporting activities. This picture was taken while the Scouts were having a Tug of War evening after being told all about the excavations taking place. 

The Palmer’s Field Lease

For many months now, we’ve been hoping that the lease for Palmers Field is very close to being signed. We were hoping this would have taken place last week at the June meeting of Aldbourne Parish Council. Although everything in the lease has been agreed, unfortunately the solicitors had not completed their work in time to enable the final agreed lease to be circulated to all the councillors before the meeting.  We are hoping we may be able to do this before the next meeting on the 3rd of July and as always, you’ll be the first to know, when there’s any more news. 

Out and About
Aldbourne is always busy with so many great events taking place including the recent Scarecrow Trail. Now in its 5th year it was another huge success so congratulations to all those involved. At ARC we decided we’d make a scarecrow this year on the theme of Books.  Did you get the connection between Theresa May, Emile Macron and the newspapers they were holding? If you didn’t the answer is at the bottom of this email!We’ll be at more events again this summer starting with the Combined Churches Fete on the 29th of June where we’ll have another prize draw with some great prizes. It would be great to see you there for a chat and it’ll give us a chance to answer any questions you have. 

What’s Next
Once the lease is signed, we’ll be moving quickly with design and funding programmes that we’ve been discussing with groups and individuals in the community. We’ll be talking to our architect about designs for the development of Palmer’s Field and will spend the coming months developing indicative designs which will take in to account everything we’ve heard from different village groups. The intention is to design a facility that fulfils the day to day needs of each sports and recreation group, while allowing flexibility when the need arises. Funding sources tell is that they favour the economy, multipurpose and utility of this approach. 

We’re hoping that we’ll be able present our ideas to the rest of the village in a consultation in the autumn. In the meantime, we’re always keen to hear from anyone who has any ideas or would like to get involved with ARC, so please do get in touch. At this stage I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all those in the community and ARC for their contribution and commitment to the lease and everything else that has been worked on in preparation for the next phase, which put simply is design, fund and build.  While we’ve been waiting for the lease to be signed we have been working hard in preparation for the moment we can move ahead. We have been fortunate to have so many people contributing their skills and talent to date and these will be invaluable in the coming months. 

Stay in Touch

This is certainly looking to be a busy summer for ARC, so we look forward to keeping you up to date at every stage of our progress. As always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at: info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Please do let us know if there is anyone else who would like to receive this newsletter every month, and don’t forget we are active on social media, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links below. 

Many thanks 

Malcolm Pryce, Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

P.S. The answer to our Scarecrow……. The Tale of Two Cities!

Spring is well and truly in the air, so it’s a time to get out and enjoy more outdoor activities. It’s been great to see more and more people coming to the Fitness with Friends (10.30am on Saturday morning) and the Rugby Netball (Thursday evening 6.30pm). Both events take place on Southward Field and thanks again to Mike Campbell and Rupert Bound who organise this every week. They always welcome new people (of all levels of fitness) to come along and join in or just watch. 

Funding

We are very grateful for more donations from people in the village including the Aldbourne Band. We are also excited to announce that we have been awarded £3,500 from Marlborough Area Board to go towards architects and design fees. This is a great boost and very exciting because now, we nearly have sufficient funds to be able to engage the architect we’ve chosen to produce drawings for consultation and designs that will eventually form our planning application. 

We’ll be involved in lots more funding events very soon, and one way you can help now is to be involved in the Scouts monthly Big New Hut 100 Club Draw. They have a couple of spare numbers so do contact Robin Morris at rozzamozza@gmail.com to find out more. This is a picture of Gary Salmon and his Big Blue machine at the last draw.

We’re also pleased to say that thanks to some generous Awards for All funding we will be engaging someone locally to gather vital information from the community to help us design a facility that truly meets the needs of the village when it comes to sport and recreation. 

Upcoming Events

We have a busy year of events coming up on Palmers Field, with the Doggy Day, Carnival Sports Day and Bonfire Night already in the diary. We are also looking forward to being at various events this year to answer people’s questions and spread the word. So look out for our banner and say hello to us at the Village Fete, Proms on the Green and the first Village Green Community Market on the 28th of April.

Palmers Field Update

Although we’re doing everything we can, we still haven’t signed the lease for Palmers Field with Aldbourne Parish Council. The final wording of the lease is still been worked on by solicitors working on behalf of ARC and the Parish Council and although the delay is frustrating, we’re confident we’ll keep making progress. Needless to say we’ll let you know as soon as we have any more news. 

Behind the Scenes

As always we’ve been very busy doing as much as we can in anticipation of the lease being signed. We have engaged an architect who’s all ready to commence drawing some initial designs for us to consider, when we have the lease agreed with the Parish Council

Stay in Touch

This is certainly looking to be a very exciting year for ARC, so we look forward to keeping you up to date at every stage of our progress. Again, we’d like to thank to all our supporters for all their continued commitment; we really appreciate it. As always if you have any questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at:

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Also, please do let us know if there is anyone else who would like to receive this newsletter every month, and don’t forget we are active on social media, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links below. 

Many thanks 


Malcolm Pryce,  Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre 

Firstly, if it’s not too late, all of us at ARC would like to wish you all a very happy and healthy 2019. We hope it’ll be a great year for you and your families.

We are very excited about this year as we get closer to bringing new sports and recreation facilities to Aldbourne. Although this has taken somewhat longer than we would have hoped, we’ve made tremendous progress over the last year and as you’ll read below we are very close to signing a lease for Palmers Field with Aldbourne Parish Council. In the meantime, the team has been working hard on as much as they can in readiness for the next stage. 

It was great to see a New Year tradition continue on the 1st of January with the annual Rugby Netball game on Southward Field. It was a fun day thanks to Rupert Bound and Mike Campbell who did a fantastic job organising another great game with more people participating than ever. 

Funding

Thanks to the efforts of our fundraising team, in 2018 we successfully received funds from Tesco (Bags of Help), Wroughton Solar Farm Project, Marlborough Area Board and most recently Awards for All (part of the Big Lottery Fund). These grants have been awarded to assist us with the cost of architect consultations and community engagement. We’ve also been able to pay for the new gates that were installed in the autumn and we’ll be putting up new noticeboards at the entrance to Palmers Field to keep everyone up to date with our progress. 

The Team

With the workload increasing all the time, we are pleased to say we now have 6 trustees, 16 voting members and nearly a hundred people receiving this newsletter as well as more and more people following us on social media. We’re very grateful to see so many people in the village getting involved and showing interest in the project. 

Architects

We mentioned in last month’s newsletter that after careful consideration we have now chosen an architect’s practice we’d like to work with, and as soon as the lease is signed we’ll formally engage their services and work on initial designs for the proposed development.  

Research

ARC’s core team have been working hard in many areas to research all aspects of this huge undertaking. This has included engaging with community groups in the village to understand the sport and recreational needs of our community, looking at all types of funding and learning from other facilities in our area to understanding the design & build process and operation of similar facilities.

In December members of the core team went to look at the facilities at Royal Wooton Basset (RWBSA). Although their facility is much bigger than our project, it is a multipurpose centre and the team at the RWBSA were incredibly generous with their time, so we were able to learn a huge amount. The RWBSA have also been very kind in offering their ongoing support and advice on all aspects of the project, which we are sure will prove invaluable. We’ll be having many more visits to other projects over the coming months and we’ll let you know how we get on.

Palmers Field Update

As we speak the solicitors representing ARC and Aldbourne Parish Council are looking at the last few details of the lease, and we hope that this process will not take much longer. We’ll keep you posted on any progress and we’ll let you know as soon as we have been able to sign an agreement. 

We look forward to sharing more news very soon, but in the meantime please remember we always welcome your questions and feedback so please do drop us a line. Also, please help us spread the word by letting us know if there is anyone else who would like to receive this newsletter each month

info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

And finally don’t forget to follow us on social media; we’re on on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so just click on the links below. 

Many thanks 

Malcolm Pryce, Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre

Welcome to this month’s newsletter and especially to those of you who will be receiving this for the first time. We now have nearly 100 people on our mailing list which is great news, as it’s a really good way to keep you up to date with what we’re doing. If you know of anyone else who would like to receive it please do let us know and don’t forget that we are active on social media, so please do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by clicking on the links at the bottom of this page. 

Bonfire Night

It’s great to see Palmers Field being used for events, and what a great evening the Village Bonfire Night was. Building on the success of last year the team from the Scouts did a fantastic job with a magnificent bonfire and spectacular fireworks not to mention the tasty food. Well done to all concerned – another superb event for the whole village to enjoy with the bonus of raising some very much needed funds. 

Palmers Field Update

As you’ll be aware, we have been working very hard with Aldbourne Parish Council for quite some time now, to secure a lease on Palmers Field. Although this has taken longer than we had hoped, we are pleased to say that we are very near to signing the lease. It has been agreed in principle and the solicitors are now working on the last few details, so we hope that we’ll be able to make an announcement very soon, and rest assured you’ll be the first to hear about it!  

Architects

In our last newsletter we mentioned that we have had some very productive meetings with four different architect’s practices. We have now chosen the architect we feel will deliver the best designs at the most competitive prices and are ready to instruct them to begin work on outline concepts for the proposed development. This will happen as soon as we sign the lease with the Parish Council, and again we’ll share all the details then.

In the meantime members of the core team will be visiting other projects in the area to give us a better understanding of design concepts and operating models. This research will be invaluable for us and we look forward to letting you know what we’ve learned. 

Funding

We have been very grateful for donations from people around Aldbourne and beyond; it has been a great help in getting us to this point. We’ve also been very fortunate to have received two small grants and the team is working hard on seed grants for short term and ongoing costs. The team will then be working on larger core grant funding once the lease has been signed. 

Stay in Touch
As always, if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please do get in contact with us at: info@ARC-Aldbourne.org.uk 

Thank you again to all our supporters for all their continued commitment.

Many thanks 

Malcolm Pryce, Chairman, Aldbourne Recreation Centre