click - Parish of Greater Whitbourne

New Shop ProgressingWellAs you know, earlier this year, afterfive years of running the shop in whatmight be the smallest space possible,we were delighted to hear that ourbid for a £250,000 lottery grant tobuild a new shop and to help developlocal food production and consumptionhad been successful. Most ofyou will have seen the sign outsidethe new shop site and may be wonderingwhat has been happeningsince then.The building work on the new shopstarted in early July....or rather, it didn't.A few negotiations on the contracthad to take place and then therain started in mid-July which meantthat the newly negotiated foundationscould not be constructed because thetrenches kept collapsing due to thesaturation of the soil. Consequentlythe designers had to go away and redesignthe foundations to be set onpiles sunk into the solid clay. Thisobviously took time but once theywere designed our builder, Spectus ofPershore, was able to get in the pilingrig and the piles were created at theend of July. The reinforcing steel forthe ground beams had to be set intoshape in workshops away from thesite and the special sheets that theground beams sit on also had to bemanufactured. These were deliveredto the site in mid-August, placed inposition, concrete delivered and theground beams constructed. So, as weenter the second week of September,the long awaited brickwork is arisingfrom the foundations. All of this delayhas meant two things, of course.Firstly, the cost is going to be greaterthan we had hoped, although it willstill be within our contingency limit;and secondly, our aim to be in thenew shop by Christmas is now notgoing to happen. Spectus are workingon a new timetable but don’t forget,once they hand the building over tous it will take two or three weeks tofit it out and test the new arrangementsbefore the first customer stepsover the lintel.In the meantime, the new shop committeehas just had a meeting devotedto planning the next steps betweennow and the opening. So wenow have a detailed action plan forthe coming months.The shop would not be there withoutthe hard work of the volunteers whowork in and around the shop. It isamazing to know that we have neverfailed to open because of the lack of avolunteer. That said we are alwayslooking for new volunteers! John Allendoes a sterling job, supported byBrenda, to make sure there is someonein the shop to serve on everyshift, every day. New volunteers aretrained and mentored by Annie Giddingsand Ann Roberts. We will soonbe launching a campaign to recruitmore volunteers and shareholders.If you would like to find out aboutthe shop and maybe get involved, eitherserving in the shop or working‘behind the scenes’ please contact me,Martin Yarnit, on 01886 821197 ormartin.yarnit@virgin.net.17 October 2012