The adjoining housing development has now started and the developer wants to take advantage of the enforced Covid closure to try and reduce disruption. Part of the development sees us getting our new car park which will be a welcome improvement from what we have now.With the main renovations completed we have been reviewing what we set out to do from the original business plan and thinking about our future plans . There are two main areas to be dealt with:
- The car park. As a reminder a new car park was conditional on the adjacent housing development. As this has now started, the car park will be moved and set out as planned. The developer is obligated to provide a similar size/capacity car park to the existing but there will be some finishing off works, such as lighting, which are left to us to deal with and we are programming all of that to follow on. There is also an opportunity for us, with layouts agreed, to increase the capacity of the car park with 3 or so additional spaces and we think this would be a worthwhile investment whilst the works are in progress.
- The shed area. This is the piece of land that sits above the beer garden. It serves little useful functional purpose for the pub or community as it stands and was identified originally for some treatment. However, it was a project that was unfunded at the time the original business plan was put together and something we said we would return to when all of the other renovations were completed. This is the point we are at now. With progress made with the renovations pretty much sticking to budget, and grant assistance achieved, we are in a good position and have resources available to do something with this area.
- The sheds are becoming unsafe. The area itself is not that attractive or useable for any particular purpose in conjunction with the pub or as a community space as it stands. So, we are going to get on with the demolition of the sheds whilst there is an opportunity to do so before the new car park is constructed. As a consequence, the area will be leveled, with new perimeter fencing where required and a direct access constructed from the beer garden. This will hopefully open up options for a better use of the space in the future.
Overall we have around £24,000 left in our capital budget and this would cover what is outlined for the car park and shed area. We are in a healthy financial position to be able to commit this budget and will still retain a small sum as a contingency to cover anything unforeseen over the next few years. Beyond that we will see the loan paid off in about three years and that in itself will open the door to new funding for the future.Folk who live in the village may also have heard about a proposal to have a local defibrillator. This is a project being led by others and funding for this is being pursued from the Parish Council and locally. If this goes ahead we have agreed that a defibrillator can be sited on an external wall at the pub and Tom and Becci have also agreed to meet the electricity costs.
As we prepare to welcome everyone back to the Exelby Green Dragon it's also worth noting that we have installed a state-of-the-art Audio Visual system in the pub which will enable groups and societies to hold meetings remotely and make large-screen presentations to bigger audiences.
This work has been funded by Pub is The Hub and our sincere thanks go to them for making this possible.