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Playing
Thanks to the noble efforts of 3 members donned in full protective clothing have cleaned and disinfected the changing rooms, showers and toilets these were returned into use for both Rugby & Football on Saturday 26th February. Our social side has been transferred to the Keswick Labour Club.
Short Term Cash Flow
With severe loss of income and with the main fund raising events of the Keswick Half Marathon (May 1st) and Keswick Beer Festival (June 3rd & 4th) still some time away the Club is eternally thankful to a number of bodies :-
The RFU have provided an immediate grant of £5,000
an interest free loan non payable for 2 years of £10,000
arrangement to cover the salary cost of the Youth
Development Office until May
Cumbria Community - an immediate grant of £5,000
Foundation
Cumbria CC - an immediate grant of £500
Neighbourhood Forum
Barclays Bank - award of an Open Spaces coaching pack that
has helped replace some of the lost equipment
We are currently also applying for loan interest assistance and professional
fees costs via Cumbria Business Link's Flood Scheme.
Overall in the short term therefore we are back playing at the Club and have sufficient funding to see us through the next few months.
Publicity
As well as many local newspaper articles we have had the following :-
2 Interviews on Radio Cumbria
TV News on Border TV
TV News on GMTV
TV News on BBC North
Visit by Elliott Morley, Environment Minister with Tony Cunningham
MP
We have also enjoyed the full support of our local MP Mr. Tony Cunningham
who took the opportunity to raise the Club's problems on the floor of the House and got the undertaking of the Sports Minister Mr. Richard Cabon to take a personal interest in the Club's recovery and a commitment to help unblock any hold ups and remove hurdles, Tony's support for the Club can not be under estimated.
We have also been working hard to re-launch the Club's web site and there is now a lot of information and photos on the site so please visit www.keswickrugbyclub.co.uk
Insurance latest
We continue to work with RG Robins the loss adjusters for AXA Insurance.
We have submitted an initial list of contents that have been lost that
totals nearly £40k and we are likely to have a shortfall on our cover
in this area. The estimate for the damage to the building is currently £160,000.
Loss of earnings is likely to be about £25,000.
The Club has deemed
it prudent to employ its own surveyor to help us with the claim.
In addition following the appearance of several large new cracks in
the building and other changes we have decided to engage R G Parkins
of Kendal to undertake a full structural survey of the building.
The Insurers have given us a deadline of the end March to advise them
of the Club's decision as to which route we plan to take, refurbishment or
new build. After that time it is highly unlikely that the insurers
will take responsibility for any further deterioration of the building.
The Long Term Plan
The Club believes that spending £200,000 of insurance money on the current Club House which is old and more importantly could flood again is not the ideal solution. We are therefore moving rapidly to examine the option of building a new flood resistant Club House & facilies.
Design & Costs
We have now had a first phase plan produced by Club Design of Rochdale, and whilst this will need to undergo extensive amendments it does give us a starting point. In particular it defines certain minimum requirements for facilities such as changing rooms to comply with the requirements of Sport England, the RFU and other bodies. It has also given us a first level costing. As currently designed the estimated costs is £987,500 plus some further money for loose furniture and equipment etc. In addition to these costs which is based on a 600 sq mtr building with a build we will have to calculate in loss of earnings during the building period, purchase of freehold land and other items and ideally we would also like to add improvements to playing facilities primarily through the installation of floodlights which would put the cost up to about £1,100,000
If necessary we do believe that changes in specification and if necessary
the phasing of the development could be used to reduce this cost if there
is a funding shortfall. We believe that the absolute minimum cost of a rebuild
of the Club House will be £800,000.
Funding
Considerable work has taken place in a very short period of time by the Committee (all of whom are volunteers and are contributing a vast amount of their free time to the project). It was clear from the outset that there would be no large grants available from government, the lottery or governing bodies. The Club realised immediately that if this project were to succeed we would have to find as much commercial private funding as possible and embarked on a wide range of investigations of schemes that could create money for the Club or where we could work on a partnership scheme with other groups. Everything from housing to sewage works has been investigated and whilst, as detailed below, some of these may still be incorporated into the final scheme because of the tight deadlines decisions had to be made on what were the high probability concepts and funding sources. These are described below.
Insurance Money
The Insurers have indicated that we would be able to use the money from the claim for the new build project. This would probably equate to an amount of about £150,000 but this is subject to negotiations etc.
RFU
Via the Rugby Football Foundation we could access an interest free loan of upto £100,000 repayable over 15 years. The Club would have sufficient surplus annual income to service this loan, subject to the final design allowing us to create income from functions and events.
Office Development
The Club owns some of the land at the Club and there is sufficient space for the creation of a 2 story office development of about 10,000 sq feet with parking. We have had initial meetings with a developer who has expressed interest in undertaking the project and this could create income for the Club of about £300,000. Ideally the Club would like to retain some ownership of the building to enable us to earn some annual income it at all possible.
Summary Position
Given the above we have a potential cost of between £800,000 and £1,100,000 versus potential funding from the above 3 sources of about £550,000. This leaves a funding gap at this time of between £250,000 to £450,000. In percentage terms we have already identified funding for between 50% and 70% of the project.
Closing the Remaining Funding Gap
We are still exploring a number of options for private funding of the
scheme as follows :-
1. Market Town
Under the government Market Town Initiative,
Keswick has successfully this month obtained £1 million in grant funding
from the North West Development Agency (NWDA) for a range of projects.
Two of the projects could be incorporated into the overall development
at the Club a) Specialist Holidays Scheme could contribute £50k towards
the Club House costs and b) an Early Years Centre could contribute
between £100-£200k
(higher figure if match funding from Sure Start is obtained). However
before any decision on location and the nature of facilities needed
can be made the project has to undertake a feasibility study. There
are also other potential locations that could be used for these projects.
Therefore whilst there is a good likelihood that the Rugby Club would
be the preferred venue and at a later stage these projects will be
incorporated into the overall plan this will not be definitively known
for 3 or 4 months.
2. United Utilities
The current sewage treatment plant
in Keswick requires attention and UU have developed a scheme for a
new screening plant that could be housed at the Rugby Club. However
due to the complex nature of utility funding and the high cost of the
scheme (estimated at £3-5
millions) the scheme has been referred to government inspectors but they will not meet
until August or September. If the scheme did go ahead then the Club could realise
£100-200,000 from the sale / lease / sub lease of the land however some of this money
could be subject to "claw back" from the County Council.
3. Cumbria Waste
Possibly as part of the negotiations
with Cumbria County Council regarding the acquisition of the freehold
of land used by the Club under a 99 year lease we are exploring the
possible siting of a community recycling facility. This could produce a capital
receipt or ongoing income that could be used to fund the proposed development.
4. Grant Funding
Whilst the Club realised early on that it was unlikely that government or lottery were able
to provide grant funding there are several key grant funders such as The Northern Rock
Foundation and The Lloyds TSB Foundation who could be approached for grants. The
RFU have offered to host and organise a meeting of potential grant funders and to support
the Club in making applications.
Summary
There are clearly a number of options that could close the funding gap and we also have the options of Public Appeal and Fund Raising Events. However the time element means that these latter options can not be used as a basis for a decision in the short term although it is highly probable that they will have a role to play.
Subsidiary Issue of the Development
Planning
We are working quickly to submit a formal planning application and whilst the Lake District National Park (LDNPA) have indicated they would want to see a full application rather than an outline application, because of time constraints we may have to follow the later route. The initial meeting with the LDNPA indicated that planning permission for both the Club House and the Office development were in line with policy and did not raise any fundamental issues subject to scale and design. However the LDNPA could not give any assurances that the application could be processed quickly and this is of concern to the Club.
Freehold
Whilst the Club owns the land around the Club House the pitches
and some other areas are on a 99 year lease from Cumbria County Council.
As part of the redevelopment would go onto the leased land we are in active
discussion with the County to try and purchase the freehold of all the
land. We have now gained cross party support from the County Councillors
and are now awaiting the County Officers to come forward with a proposal.
Access
Ideally the Club House would be built to overlook the pitch but this would limit or even stop the current vehicle access over the flood defences to the pitches and parking areas. We are therefore discussing with Allerdale Borough Council who own the adjoining private lane if we can negotiate a right of way in return for giving up some land to make this lane a two way rather than single track access which would benefit the Club and provide better access for caravans to the Allerdale Council owned Camping and Caravan site next door to the Club. As with the County the political will appears to be in place but we are awaiting officer proposals.
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