News about Cannich Hall
May 2012. More funding success!
Well, we can barely contain our excitment. Highland LEADER has awarded us £136, 317 towards the hall refurbishment project. This is hugely significant as it means we can now press ahead with Phase 1 of the refurbishment. Total funding secured so far comes to £291,047 - so that'll give the hall a bit more than a lick of paint! The construction tender notice is being advertised and we will be appointing a contractor within the next month or so. All being well, building work will start late summer/early autumn.
March 2012 Funding Success!
We've just been awarded £25,400 from the Climate Challenge Fund towards the hall refurbishment - specifically insulation (badly needed) and new doors and windows.
Funding for Hall Refurbishment
Now here’s a nice way to wind up 2011. Some of the funding applications we’ve put in have yielded some positive results. We’ve just been awarded £10,000 from Creative Scotland which we’ll be putting towards a demountable stage, new seating etc. And Highland Cross has given us£12,500 towards the new community room we will be building.
Refurbishment Project – Plans now on-line
The plans for the refurbishment of Cannich Hall prepared by the architect Chris Davenport are now available to view on-line in the Document Archive section of the website. They’ve been compiled based on the huge number of comments we had during the community consultation carried out last year when we asked people what kinds of things they would want to see in a refurbished hall.
Key features include:
- Insulating and cladding (with timber donated by SSE) of the entire building.
- Removal of asbestos.
- A new kitchen and separate community room – (the current kitchen, is not cost-effective to upgrade).
- A new internal corridor to allow access to the kitchen and community meeting room without having to go through the main hall.
- New, more efficient heating system.
- Demolition of the current stage area (also in very poor condition) to create a very large store room and a small room which could potentially be a GP surgery or office, with an upstairs multipurpose / youth room. For events (music concerts, plays etc) we have applied for funding for a demountable stage plus lighting & sound equipment.
- Refurbishment of the old projector room plus adjoining rooms into storage areas (where the ceiling is low) and a resource/meeting area. Ideas for use for this space include a heritage room, computers and other learning resources.
- Internal decoration and wall boarding in the main hall suitable for ball games
- Larger space in the foyer for a display area.
- New, external porch area.
Total project costs for this work, compiled by Chartered Quantity Surveyors McLeod & Aitken, are £363,960 (which includes VAT). The schedule of works has been compiled in such a way that it can be done in phases as funding permits.
Do please let us know what you think. Building work will not start until funding has been secured and there is plenty of time to feedback to the architect before putting in the final details.
Hall Refurbishment Project
Planning permission for the hall refurbishment project has now been submitted to Highland Council. We’ll be presenting the plans plus project costs at our AGM on Thursday 3 November and would welcome your comments and feedback. We’ll then be putting them on display in the hall foyer for a couple of weeks. You’ll also be able to see them here on the website.
We’re now working on getting in a number of funding applications to help towards the costs of this project. We’ve already just put in an application to Creative Scotland for lighting, sound equipment and a new demountable stage. During the next few weeks we’ll also be applying to:
- Robertson Trust
-
Llankelly Chase
-
Trusthouse Foundation
-
Highland Cross
- Dream Fund
Then early next year we’ll be submitting an application to Highland LEADER.
Gala Day a Great Success
It took more than rain (and there was quite a bit of it) to dampen the spirits of everybody who turned out for the Strathglass Gala. The hall was packed, people got wet, fell out of wheelbarrows, tumbled off spacehoppers and tucked into the most delicious cream teas. And if that wasn’t enough, there was still energy for a BBQ and dancing.
All this raised more than £900 for Cannich Hall Rufurbishment – an amazing amount! A huge thank you to everybody who supported this and all the people who helped revive this popular community event.
Co-operative Community Fund Award
Three cheers for the Co-operative Community Fund which has just confirmed it’s giving us a grant of £960. We’ll be using this to put in some trace heating into the ladies toilet (nobody can face another winter of burst pipes), buying a decent (and safe) ladder, some pipework and insulation in the foyer plus window cleaning equipment and, we hope, curtains.
Concert Great Success
A huge thank you to all who came along to the folk concert with Nick Keir and Stephen Quigg. It was an absolute blast! There have been lots of comments from people about how much they enjoyed it – and it looks like the boys themselves are keen to come back next year.
A particular thank you goes to Strathglass Marketing Group – especially Jim McAuley and Ian Mure.
At the risk of sounding like a speech from the Oscar’s this event really wouldn’t have happened without their tremendous support and coming up with the idea in the first place.
The concert raised £700 toward the Cannich Hall refurbishment project – by far the biggest total from a fund raiser so far.
Funding Latest
We’ve been awarded £3,000 from the Ward Discretionary Fund. This will help towards legal costs incurred to enable the successful transfer of the hall to community ownership.
Charges Reduced
We are dropping the £35 after 10pm charge for hall hire. After a bit of digging about we discovered that, although this was something the hall’s previous owners, Highland Council, put into its hall hire handbook (and we’ve always said that, for the time being, we will keep charges has they were under Highland Council), in practice it seems to have been rarely implemented. So the £35 charge is now history – so get booking!
Architect Appointed
Chris Davenport of Drumnadrochit has been appointed as architect to take forward the refurbishment of the hall. Chris designed the Bog Cotton Café (amongst other things). He's already been measuring up the hall, crawled under the stage area and clambered up a rather dodgy looking staircase to get into the old projector room. As usual, we'll keep you posted as things progress and there will be an opportunity later this summer to see the final plans.
Highland Comfort Scheme
Cannich Hall is now part of the Highland Comfort Scheme so, just in case you were wondering what had happened to the public toilets in Cannich, you'll find them in the new location of Cannich Hall. Toilets are open 8am - 8pm, 1st April - 31st October.
Next steps in the Cannich Hall Development Project
If you thought it would all go quiet now that we officially own the hall think again! Next steps include appointing an architect and firming up details of the development project costs. We've already been speaking with funders and have had positive indications from LEADER. We've also been advised by HIE to go for the Big Lottery's Growing Community Assets funding programme. So there's plenty to keep us busy.
Date for community ownership of hall confirmed!
After more than two years of planning and negotiations the local community finally took ownership of Cannich Hall of 1 April 2011 (and no, we're not joking!).