Meare and Westhay New Village Hall

11/04/2023

Following on from our AGM last week, please visit the below link for the minutes, presentation slides and the Chair's report:

05/04/2023

We are deeply saddened and disappointed to announce that the current trustees of Meare and Westhay Village Hall and Playing Field charity and the CIO have taken the difficult decision to stand down as trustees of both charities. The situation with the public works loan and the Parish Council has become untenable and the individuals involved mean it is unlikely to be resolved to enable us to move forwards.

This village hall is the closest it has ever been to being built and it is through the hard work and determination of the outgoing trustees that have brought it this far.

The project is shovel ready. We have secured planning permission by commencing the build last month with a Preferred Contractor on board having tendered the reduced scale build.

We would like to thank those who have supported us in recent years and feel a great deal of pride in what we have achieved.

We have appended the Chairman’s report, and will share a link to the Annual Report presentation and Financial Report from yesterday’s AGM when it has been uploaded to the website for further information.

03/04/2023

Please welcome ‘Emily the Talking Bench’! Those who have visited the playing fields recently may have seen the new bench ‘Emily’ which has been installed at the northern end of the field, following the Make a Difference Locally (MADL) ‘Chairs for Chat’ grant awarded towards the end of last year.

We are grateful to Jo Hellier who nominated us through Gwilliams of Edington. We were awaiting the installation of a plaque before the grand unveiling however this has been a little delayed.

Please do sit, have a chat and enjoy the view 😊

03/04/2023

We’re really pleased to announce that we have been awarded £500 from the Make a Difference Locally (MADL) grant as part of the Heart of the Community Awards to commemorate His Majesty’s upcoming Coronation. In light of the passion with which our new King supports nature and the environment, we would like to commemorate this exciting Coronation by enhancing our local environment for the benefit of wildlife, the local community and in particular the children of the Parish of Meare.

Installing nature enhancing nest boxes and feeding stations will stand as a fantastic legacy to commemorate His Majesty’s upcoming Coronation, with long lasting educational and environmental benefits.

In conjunction with Meare Village Primary School, we will be setting up a bird box with a camera so that the children can monitor any nesting birds who take up residence in the new box, along with setting up a hedgehog feeding station.

We also plan to install a Barn Owl box at the perimeter of the playing fields to enhance the biodiversity of this wonderful space in our community.

Many thanks again to MADL and for Jo Hellier through Gwilliams of Edington for nominating our cause.
https://m.facebook.com/MADLcharity/photos/a.350783328369646/6090261147755140/?type=3&sfnsn=scwspwa

This is no ! 💗

We really have funded 147 causes, so they can celebrate and help with the Big help out for the through our 🤴 👸

We're donating £73.500 to help Charities and Good causes make it a celebration to remember! 🎉

Check out all winners here- https://www.nisalocally.co.uk/community/success-stories/heart-of-the-community-round-5-winners-announced/

01/04/2023

We would like to say a big thank you to all those who came along to our Easter craft workshop today; we had a great time with lovely Easter crafts made by all (including the parents and grandparents 😂) A special thanks to our Star Baker Rita Wren whose fantastic cakes, muffins and Easter biscuits were enjoyed by all! A big thanks as well to Hailey Judges, Janet Westover, Maggie and Sandra for all their help setting up and helping with all the crafts. It was certainly messy but great fun with £52 raised for the Turkey-Syria earthquake appeal😊

29/03/2023

We’re pleased to share that this stage of the foundation works for the new village hall have been completed as planned. Melhuish and Saunders finished the concrete pour yesterday, despite the freezing cold winds and rain. Thanks all for your patience during this time.

27/03/2023

In advance of our AGMs next Tuesday 4th April, please see the two agendas attached for the two charities, with the lists of new nominees for trustees within. As is customary at all AGMs, the existing trustees will stand down and new trustees will be elected during the AGMs. All residents of the Parish aged 18 or over, present at the AGMs will be eligible to vote.

For clarity, the existing trustees are as follows: Janet Westover (Chair), Alan Wren (Treasurer), Rita Wren (Secretary), Colin Westover and Zoe Masterson

24/03/2023

We’re really pleased to announce that we will start the construction of the new village hall foundations at the playing fields next week.

Our contractor Melhuish & Saunders Ltd will start constructing the foundations closest to the car park first (the eastern end). This is a very exciting and important milestone in the construction of our new village hall, and will ensure that the existing planning permission does not lapse.

There may be some minor disruption to the users of the adjacent car park. We have also informed parents and carers of children at Meare Village Primary School as the car park is regularly used for school drop off and collection.

The building works will take place over the course of one week, from Monday 27th March until Friday 31st March 2023. We have asked the Contractor to minimise vehicle movements and deliveries during the peak school drop off and collection times wherever possible, to reduce the disruption to the car park users.

Access will be required from the car park to the playing fields so it is likely that a small number of parking spaces will be taken out of action during this time along with a section of fencing to be temporarily removed, to provide a route to the playing fields.

The working area will be securely fenced throughout the works and afterwards however we request that parents and carers take additional care with their children during this time as construction sites can be hazardous.

We will keep you updated with progress and if there are any changes to the above plans.

We are very excited to be commencing the construction of this long over-due community project and would like to thank all those affected for their patience during this time.

Meare & Westhay Village Hall Trustees

21/03/2023

Here are some more photos from our mosaic workshop last weekend ☺️

20/03/2023

Thank you to all the fantastic crafters who joined our two mosaic workshops over the weekend. They were brilliant events and enjoyed by all, with some really beautiful mosaic birds and hearts made. It was great to learn new skills whilst meeting a lovely group of people. A special thanks to our tutor Andrea, for sharing her amazing skills and creativity with the groups and to Rita and Janet for their wonderful homemade cakes! Thanks too to Maggie at the Chapel for helping with the set up and running the event. We’re delighted to have raised £414 for the Village Hall and Playing Fields charity and we have already received requests for more similar events.