The Medical Centre build is now in its final weeks and providing there are no unforeseen problems the new facility is on schedule to open at the front of the Festival Hall next month.
Councillor Geoff Hall provided an update at the Parish Council meeting on Monday, 14th March, saying "It is all looking very smart and coming along nicely."
He spoke about particular milestones that had recently occurred, including NHS Infection Control visiting the site last week and raising some minor points which are being addressed, warranties are now in place relating to subcontractors and the car park has been resurfaced and marked out.
Cllr Hall added "We are working on a regime now to manage the site and I'll report back further on how we actually allocate spaces and manage it."
Arcus, their managing agents, will be carrying out a snagging inspection with Jones Contracts on Thursday, 17th March, and the District Valuer will be visit the site on Monday, 21st March.
Geoff Hall explained "This is the crucial visit as we require sign off by the District Valuer to enable the doctors to move in and particularly, from our point of view, to get release of the £500,000 advance rent."
Subject to confirmation the doctors are planning to move to the new Medical Centre over the weekend of the 8th to 11th April.
Unfortunately the pharmacy will not be opening at the same time.
Cllr Hall explained "Frustrating regarding the pharmacy. We've done everything in our power to progress completion. The problem is the original planning approval was for pharmaceutical use, prescription of drugs which technically doesn't include all the ancillary things that the pharmacy would sell - toothbrushes, toothpaste and so on.
"We have had written informal confirmation from planning that they would not see any problem with this but unfortunately the pharmacy and their solicitors are insisting on having something more formal, a legal certificate to confirm that, so we have asked them to tell us exactly what wording they want on that and we are waiting for them to come back and tell us."
He added "The pharmacy space is a shell still at the moment, they won't be there when the practice opens up which is disappointing."
Speaking about the second floor, Cllr Hall said "The second floor fit out is also progressing well. On the advice of our project manager and the letting agent we have gone ahead and installed toilets, lighting and heating - because of the relatively small space the type of tenants that we will be attracting there are not major organisations who are going to come in and do the full fit out themselves, they will do their part of it. So the view was taken that we had to that basic installation."
The Parish Council also passed a couple of resolutions regarding facilities management and how they will manage the site post completion and the regulations which they will have to comply with - which Cllr Hall described as "one of the most complex and time-consuming elements of this project".
He said "We have become aware of compliance requirements that we weren't previously aware of. We have found that we have had to commit to actions in order to ensure we meet the deadline of the District Valuer."
As a result the Parish Council approved two resolutions at the meeting, the first was to retrospectively approve the appointment of Rebloom Ltd to provide initial set-up of facilities management covering the Festival Hall and Medical Centre at a cost of £2,950 - this covers the training and compliance measures to set up the building prior to opening.
The second resolution was to approve a six month contract for Rebloom Ltd to cover interim facilities management at a cost of £3,650, in order to give the Parish Council sufficient time to engage in a formal tendering process for a contract covering the longer term facilities management.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Are you making mischief? Even I, who have regrettably been unable to attend many of the Parish Council's well advertised information sharing meetings, have been able to glean from information shared on this website that the Parish Council have inherited costs that were not transparent, to them or us, when they were voted in.
Who do you suppose should pay for those unexpected but unavoidable additional costs? I'm referring specifically to the Medical Centre, which the new Parish Council has, against all odds, managed to deliver. And also the Festival Hall, which is anticipated to be a benefit to the community as a whole and ultimately, I believe, a revenue generator for this village, now it has been renovated...
It's easy to complain, isn't it, about additional taxes, when you are not in charge of the 'purse strings'? Would you have preferred no increase in tax and no delivery of a completed Medical Centre and renovated Festival Hall, (even though both projects were well under way when the 'new' Parish Council took over)?
I'm willing to pay more for the completion of these projects which I know will benefit the whole community. Yes, the increase is a significant percentage. But then it was the previous Parish Council that laid the foundations, and the 'new' Parish Council inherited it, and were bound to deliver it. No matter how inaccurate the original costings that they inherited might be.
I still have far more faith in the current Parish Council than the previous one. I only say this as I get the feeling there are still some people who cannot let go of the past and embrace the now (never mind the future).
Additional toilets on the second floor? If this space is to be occupied by 'not major organisations' (one man bands?) and given that the Parish Council is very shorty of money, might not the public toilets have been perfectly servicable? Or perchance I am being too 'mean'.