Friends of Bealings Playing field

  Extract from the minutes of the Bealings Village Hall Management Committee meeting held on 17 January 2006

Proposed refurbishment of the Playing field

Eric Barnett who is Chairman of The Friends of the Playing field informed the committee of the current position regarding the proposals.

An open meeting in November had been organised by the group looking into the refurbishment who are called the “Friends of Bealings Playing Field”

this had been attended by around fifty villagers. It was felt following this that the response to the ideas for refurbishment were supported and it had been decided to go ahead with the next stage. The various stages of the refurbishment were explained, committee members had previously been circulated with details of this which stated that the Village Hall Management Committee would be consulted at every stage and their agreement gained before any decisions were implemented.

The first step would be to appoint a qualified designer to develop the scheme from the original plans, planning consent may be needed if earth has to be moved to level part of the playing field, this would cost 50% less if the Parish Council were to apply on behalf of the village hall.

It had been suggested that the playing field should be renamed the John Belstead Playing field in memory of Lord Belstead who died recently, his sister the Hon. Jill Ganzoni was agreeable to this and it would give the project gravitas when applying for funding. It will be easier to attract funding for a multi-sport pitch (including markings for tennis, football, netball etc) rather than a separate 5-a-side football pitch and tennis court. The finished plans may not be dissimilar to the ones originally produced, with some omissions and additions it may be possible to get funding for an outside toilet with a storeroom attached.

After some discussion which raised the various reservations and objections from members of the committee, including security, the future cost of maintenance of the playing field in terms of money plus volunteers to oversee and maintain it, it was agreed that the Friends should acquire funding and confirmation that the refurbishment could go ahead before the Village Hall committee became involved.

The committee was then asked to vote on three actions that the Friends of the Playing field wished to take, voting was by a show of hands:-

1. the Friends appoint an appropriately qualified designer to develop the scheme to the level of detail which would enable planners to determine whether there is a need to seek planning approval. The resultant scheme would be submitted to the VHMC for approval.

Request granted.

2. the Friends set up a local design team (including at least one VHMC Trustee) to provide direction to the design company.

Request granted.

3. The VHMC sets up a bank account specifically for the Playing field project and no other project to hold funds raised and grants received.

Proposed signatories are: Roger Roseboom, Malcolm Watson and Eric Barnett.

Request not granted.