There has been a great deal happening behind the scenes since our last Project Update in May, so we wanted to bring everyone up to date on where we are, what we have been working on and, importantly, what happens next.
As ever with a project of this scale, progress is not always a straight line. The last few months have brought both challenges and opportunities, but they have also helped us establish a much clearer route forward.
And there is plenty to feel positive about.
Our discussions with Wealden District Council
In our May Project Update, we explained that HDCC had submitted an application to Wealden District Council for £200,000 through the Community Led Infrastructure Fund (CLIF), alongside a request for additional Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding. At that point, we expected our funding application to be considered by Wealden in July.
When the July meeting papers were published and it became clear that our project was not being considered, Trustees followed this up immediately.
Since then, we have had a series of detailed discussions and meetings with senior officers at Wealden to understand what had happened, establish the correct funding route for a project of this scale, and determine exactly what would be required from us to move our application forward.
We have now been advised that the appropriate route for HDCC is not through CLIF, but exclusively through CIL funding. This is a different process and requires a substantial package of supporting information before our application can be considered.
A significant amount of Trustees’ work over the summer has therefore been focused on responding to these requirements. We have provided Wealden with further detailed information about the project, including its costs, funding position, planning status, deliverability and the substantial financial commitment already being made by the village.
We are now focused on providing the remaining information required with the aim of enabling our application to be considered in November.
One particularly important requirement is demonstrating that the project is sufficiently technically developed and that our construction costs can be robustly evidenced. This has reinforced the importance of completing RIBA Stage 4 – the detailed technical design package that will allow us to move towards competitive tender and obtain robust construction prices.
To move this forward without delay, HDCC Chair Bob Lake and a fellow Trustee met with Mike Barber of MJB Architecture, our project architects, to discuss the technical package and the timetable required. MJB have confirmed that they are able to undertake the work within the timeframe needed to meet Wealden’s deadlines.
This is an important step. We now know what Wealden requires, our professional team is ready to deliver the technical work within the required timeframe, and our immediate task is to secure the remaining funding needed to commission it.
We were naturally disappointed that our application did not progress for consideration in July as we had anticipated. However, the work undertaken since then has given us much greater clarity about the route to significant Wealden funding and what we need to do to pursue it.
Our focus now is firmly on meeting those requirements, maintaining momentum and putting forward the strongest possible case for investment in Hadlow Down.
Why RIBA Stage 4 matters
We already have something extremely valuable: extant planning permission for the new Community Centre at the Playing Field.
RIBA Stage 4 takes those approved plans and develops them into the detailed technical package needed to actually build the Hall – the architectural, structural and engineering drawings, specifications and information that contractors need in order to accurately price the work.
Completing Stage 4 will allow us to move towards competitive tender and establish robust construction costs.
But it does something else too.
It demonstrates to Wealden, charitable foundations, trusts and other major funders that HDCC is not simply an aspiration or an early-stage proposal. It is a properly developed project capable of moving towards construction once the funding package is assembled.
That makes Stage 4 an important gateway to the larger sums we need to unlock.
£42,000 – our immediate challenge
The cost of completing the RIBA Stage 4 technical package is approximately £42,000.
Rather than allowing this requirement to stall the project, Trustees decided to act quickly and launch a targeted fundraising campaign.
And the response has been wonderful.
We have already raised £24,000 towards the £42,000 required.
Even more encouragingly, three donors this week alone have given an extraordinary £4,250 towards the Stage 4 package.
To those donors – and to everyone who has contributed – thank you.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of this support. This isn’t simply £24,000 towards drawings and technical information. It is investment in the work that will enable us to tender the project and significantly strengthen our case when asking major organisations to invest much larger sums in Hadlow Down.
We now have approximately £18,000 left to raise and are working hard to secure the balance as quickly as possible.
Making a £3.5 million project achievable
Construction costs have risen substantially during the long life of this project and continue to be a significant risk. Our current estimate for delivering the complete Community Centre is around £3.5 million.
That is a daunting figure, so our strategy is to break the project into two achievable phases.
Phase 1 is the new Village Hall, together with the essential infrastructure, car parking and associated works needed for the site. Its current estimated cost is approximately £2.4 million.
Phase 2 will complete the dedicated Sports Pavilion facilities.
Our immediate focus is therefore not on somehow finding £3.5 million in one go. It is on completing Stage 4 and assembling the funding package required to deliver the £2.4 million Phase 1 Hall.
Against that figure, the village’s potential contribution of approximately £500,000 is very significant – more than one fifth of the estimated Phase 1 cost – and gives us a powerful foundation from which to approach major funders.
Building the funding package
Since July, Trustees have been working intensively on the wider funding strategy.
Alongside our discussions with Wealden, we are identifying and approaching charitable trusts, foundations, grant-making bodies, potential major donors and other organisations whose funding priorities align with what the new Centre will provide. We currently have three live major funding applications.
This is about much more than replacing an ageing building.
The new Community Centre will provide accessible facilities for sport, community events, drama, clubs and societies, children and families, exercise and wellbeing activities. It will provide a warm hub, space for health and wellbeing outreach programmes and a volunteer-run community café – somewhere people can simply meet, connect and spend time with others.
That social impact is central to the case we are making to funders.
Our Business Plan and funding strategy are also being continually reviewed and developed as new information becomes available, with the Business Plan shared with members of the Parish Council Advisory Committee for scrutiny and review.
The power of community fundraising
While Trustees work on grants and major funding, something equally important continues here in the village.
Our brilliant local fundraising team continues to find imaginative ways of raising money and bringing people together at the same time.
Plans are already taking shape for an exciting Open Gardens initiative for spring/summer 2027. We hope this will become a wonderful village event as well as an important fundraiser, and we’ll share much more about that as plans develop.
We would also like to say a very special thank you to Dee Hogg, who has been running the lovely Pop-Up & Craft events, with proceeds generously coming to HDCC.
These individual initiatives really do add up – but they also show potential major funders that our community is actively behind the project.
Mandy made it to Istanbul!
And then there are those who take community fundraising to quite another level.
Our Trustee Mandy Chapman has just returned after successfully completing her extraordinary cycle challenge from Dover to Istanbul, raising money for Polymyalgia causes and HDCC.
It was an epic journey in every sense: major mechanical problems with the bike, challenging border crossings and cycling conditions ranging from intense heat to torrential rain.
But Mandy kept pedalling – all the way to Istanbul.
At the time of writing she has raised £1,178, meaning £589 will come to HDCC.
We are enormously proud of her and incredibly grateful to Mandy and to everyone who sponsored her.
You can read the diary of this remarkable adventure on Instagram at @tandembiketouring – and there is still time to sponsor her.
A shout-out to our local businesses
We also want to recognise the support we continue to receive from local businesses.
Whether through sponsorship, donations, raffle prizes, professional expertise, practical help or simply helping us spread the word, local businesses have an important part to play in getting this project built.
For a village of our size to deliver a project of this ambition will take a genuine partnership between residents, community organisations, local businesses, public bodies and major funders.
If you run a local business and would like to become involved – whether through a donation, sponsorship, fundraising idea, gift in kind or professional support – we would love to hear from you.
So, where are we?
We know residents want us to be open about both the opportunities and the challenges.
The route to major funding has proved more complex than we hoped when we wrote our May update. But the work undertaken since then has given us a much clearer understanding of what is required and what we need to do next.
There is still a great deal of work ahead of us. We don’t underestimate that.
But nor should we underestimate how far this project has come.
We have:
- established that CIL is the appropriate funding route for the project following detailed discussions with Wealden District Council;
- submitted a substantial package of additional project and funding information requested by Wealden and are working towards the November funding timetable;
- confirmed with MJB Architecture that the RIBA Stage 4 technical package can be completed within the timeframe required by Wealden;
- raised £24,000 of the £42,000 needed to commission the Stage 4 work, including an extraordinary £4,250 from three donors in just one week;
- continued developing approaches to trusts, foundations and other major external funders;
- and continued raising money locally through our wonderful network of volunteers, residents, businesses and individual fundraisers.
Every grant application, every meeting, every technical drawing, every fundraising event, every mile Mandy pedalled, every Pop-Up & Craft event Dee has organised, every local business that lends its support and every individual donation moves us another step closer.
Our immediate task is clear: we need to raise the remaining £18,000 for RIBA Stage 4 and keep the project moving.
To everyone who continues to support us, encourage us, challenge us, volunteer for us and donate to us – thank you.