Hi everyone
The Trustees of Whitchurch Community Swimming Pool (WCSP) have been busy continuing to work towards a lease for the pool, which would allow us to start the process of getting the pool ready to use!
We know that progress might seem slow – but please be confident that we are moving things forward as quickly as we can. The Testbourne Governors have been very supportive and willing to work with us, and as we recently mentioned, the school has received permission from the Department for Education to start the process of negotiating a lease. This was a major step forward, supported by The Governors and our local MP, Kit Malthouse.
As you can imagine, agreeing a lease is, in itself, a major task! We will be meeting with the Governors next Tuesday (14th November) to start the process of developing a document called the ‘Heads of Terms’. This is essentially a chance to agree the main items needed in the lease – a type of roadmap agreed between the Landlord (Testbourne Community School) and the Tenant (WCSP). This is really important to make sure we have agreed expectations of the lease in due course.
The Trustees met (7th November) for our monthly meeting, and as ever, there was much to discuss. Some of the key topics covered included:
- Quotes we’ve received for some maintenance work, including fencing;
- Our submission to register the pool as an Asset of Community Value;
- Our website and its ongoing development;
- How to make best use of the tools we have (for free) from Microsoft;
- Our finances and in particular, our Grant Applications;
- Our attendance at PTFA Christmas Fair on the 25th November.
- Our attendance at Longparish Christmas Fayre on the 9th December.
- Upcoming events including the Christmas Quiz on the 9th December.
- Attendance at community events, such as the Friday Market;
- Community engagement, including broadening our leaflet drops;
- Progress on the Heads of Terms and Lease (as above);
- The policies we need to have in place, including Health & Safety, Anti-discrimination, Anti-fraud and data protection, among others; and
- Insurances.
So, as you can see, there is a lot going on. We’re the first to admit that some of it isn’t particularly exciting – we’d love to just ‘dive in’ (pun intended…) but it’s really important that we get through all this preparatory work so that, when the time comes, we are ready to welcome you all to the pool.
Thanks for your ongoing patience and support – we really appreciate it. Don’t forget that if you’d like to donate you can do that here. If you’d like to volunteer, please just complete the volunteer form here The WCSP Trustees
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