Over the past year, several groups in the village have been working together to design and propose a project to build a new Community Centre for the village. The design incorporates a Village Hall, a Pavilion, a Village Office, space for a Pre-school and a Youth Centre and will be built on the John Cutforth playing field adjacent to the A607 and Pottergate Road.

Planning permission was granted on 19th May.

A public survey conducted in 2009 showed overwhelming support for the project with about 10% of Navenby population returning written comments. This helped to convince the planning authorities of our needs and will support our applications for funding.
The detailed plans and drawings are available to view in the Village Office and below you can review the project and see the outline of the planned building. You can also call one of the volunteers for more information or to offer comments or help.

Buy-a-Brick! fund raising programme.
Local fund raising began in July with the start of the Buy-a-Brick programme. For £5 you can support the project and receive a certificate of the donation. A full schedule of events around the village is being planned and we hope to have one event each month for the next six months. Details will be posted on the website and in the Village Office. Donations are welcome at any time to Angie McDonald in the Parish Office.

July/August
Negotiations are still on-going for the transfer of the old village hall to the school authority.
Almost £1,500 has been contributed for the 'Buy-a-Brick' programme.
Work should begin shortly on constructing the new entrance to the playing field.
May
The planning application was approved by delegated powers on 19th May 2010.
April
The Planning Permission process is proceeding on schedule with the determination due mid May.
Discussions with the Highways Authority have resulted in updated drawings for the site entrance to facilitate access for both vehicles and pedestrians.
Lincoln Education Authority will respond in May to our request for funding in exchange for relinquishing the lease of the Village Hall at the primary school.
The Big Lottery Fund has announced that it will re-instate the capital grant program for community buildings later this year.
The project will be reviewed at the public Village Meeting on Thursday 22nd April at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.

February
The design has been accepted into the planning permission process which should be completed by mid May.

November -
Reviews of the building design have been completed to maximise use of the space.
The design now includes -
Village Hall - about twice the size of the current Hall with two large storage rooms, kitchen/bar and cellar room.
Pre-school/Club area - large enough for 36-40 children to OFSTED standards with large store, kitchen, boys and girls toilets, staff/quiet room.
Village Office - with waiting room, toilet, office, meeting room, kitchen, store and community police office.
Lobby entrance - with large male and female toilets, cloakrooms and caretaker's office/store.
Youth Club area - about 90 square metres of space with kitchen and store.
Pavilion area - with changing rooms, referee rooms, toilets, large external access storage and separate entrances.

The design complements the use of other halls in the area by replacing the current Navenby Hall at the primary school and adding needed functions not available elsewhere but without duplicating space for activities such as badminton and stage performances available at Wellingore.

A Site Plan has been prepared showing how we can incorporate two tennis courts/training area and a cricket pitch together with the four football pitches.

206 signatures and comments have been logged supporting the project. Local youth groups have provided their own survey comments giving support for youth activities at the new centre. A separate area for youth activities is now included in the design.

The design drawings and survey leaflet can be viewed in the Village Office. If your group would like someone to visit one of your meetings to discuss the plans please ask.

The Village Hall was built in the 70's as part of the Chance-to-Share scheme with the primary school. This scheme was designed to provide public access space for a community as part of new school buildings - a good idea at the time but the cause of much conflict today. The hall offers only 90 square metres of space, has no disabled access or toilets, no kitchen, no storage and day-time use is now seen as a potential danger to the security and needs of the school. The education authorities want us to vacate the hall and the school would welcome the extra space for its own needs.

The Sports Pavilion was built in the 1980's and has served its purpose well - but it is not large enough to meet the needs of a growing youth football program and does not meet the modern standards for security and child-friendly sports facilities.

Happy Days Pre-school is managed and operated by local volunteers and they have been trying for over a year to rent space for 5-days-a-week classes without success. With many new families in the village this is a real need. The problem is that all the rentable space offers only a single room and renting it all week means no one else can use it. OFSTED, the government agency that regulates schools, places design constraints on space that is used for a Pre-school which many older buildings cannot meet without expensive modifications.

The Village Office is home to the Council and provides a valuable service as a Community Access Point for the cliff villages. It is cramped for space, offers no privacy for residents to discuss their needs and we spend £350 of taxpayer's money each month on a rented room.

What does it all mean? -- since the public amenities were built the population has grown dramatically - with 29% growth in the last 9 years alone. 200 houses have been added since 2000. Business facilities have expanded to meet growing demand but not the public facilities. A larger population means more demand for clubs, associations, meetings, youth activities, sports, fitness groups and all the leisure activities we need and enjoy. New housing has brought many new families and Navenby is not the rural community of 947 that it was in 1970.

Navenby needs and deserves better public facilities.

In 2007 the Parish Council and Village Hall Committee proposed a new hall to be built on the John Cutforth field. The design incorporated a Village Office but otherwise provided only a grand hall. A funding bid was made to the Lottery Fund but was not successful. In 2008 the Village Hall Committee began work on a new, simpler design which would allow one section of the hall to be rented 5-days-a-week to the Pre-School and a second section to be used for normal bookings replacing the current hall. At the same time, Navenby Football Club was working to propose a new pavilion to meet the needs of a growing number of teams and the Parish Council began planning to build a new Village Office on the playing field.
It didn’t make any sense to construct three new buildings.

The latest design has converged to a simpler rectangular building with all the features and space to meet the needs.
The Village Hall is large enough for carpet bowls and all village activities with excellent storage, a full kitchen/bar and audio/video equipment.
The Pre-school/Club Room is designed to meet all the standards required by OFSTED for use as a school area including a kitchen and secure, outdoor play area. Evenings and weekends it can be rented as a meeting room or in conjunction with the Village Hall as a social area for larger functions.
The Pavilion area has space for up to 8 changing rooms with showers and 2 rooms for officials.
The Village Office has a separate entrance/lobby, waiting area, office area, meeting room and community police office.
Following public consultation, a separate Youth Club area has been added with its own kitchen and storage.
All areas have storage for furniture and activity needs. All areas have disabled access and toilets.
Additional space is available in the roof area for long-term storage.
Additional features are being discussed such as local heritage displays and a museum area.
Full insulation with zoned heating and lighting will enhance the efficiency of operating the facility. Solar panels, ground-source heating, rainwater collection and similar features are under discussion.
From the public survey, additional activities have been suggested and volunteer time offered to support youth activities, a cricket club, tennis courts, a Wi-Fit club, children's climbing wall, film club and a judo club. Making modern facilities available certainly stimulates new thinking.

By working together we combine our resources to approach specific funding sources such as Sports Foundations, Early Years school support groups, the Lottery and local authorities. The current quoted build cost is £828,000 with additional funds required for modification to the site entrance and for parking and similar external work. Initial capital for the fund will come from the sale of the lease on the current Village Hall at the primary school and from support of the Parish Council and other local funds. We hope to have an initial amount of about £250,000 identified by the end of May before approaching the Lottery and other major funding sources. Now that we have planning permission, local groups will start a community funding drive kicking off with a Sell-a-Brick program which will be advertised around the village and available at the School Fete on 19th June.

- we need all the help we can muster to raise the funds. If you know of any agency, business or foundation that might donate to our cause please call at the Village Office or email navenby.net and we will add it to our list.