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Boathouse Report September 2006 We lost EVERYTHING in the fire, except our defaced Red
Ensign which was in the YMCA. To the casual onlooker little appears to have
happened on the boathouse site since this dreadful picture appeared in the Evening
Post. Behind the scenes however it is a very different story.
The Leaders besides having to run the various Explorer,
Scout, Cub & Beaver meetings and camps etc whilst having full time jobs
to contend with, now, together with the Executive, had to contend with the
problems of the caused by the fire and loss of boating facilities and examine
how we could get a new boathouse. In spite of all the difficulties we have
achieved a lot as this report shows.
So we did it by water. Barges were loaded by crane on site
then off loaded into grab lorries at Then came some good news
Lieutenant Commander J W Haynes RN
presenting the RN Recognition Certificate to Scout Leader Mike Davidson April
2005. Immediately after the fire a vast amount of planning,
discussion & meetings commenced. How could we arrange boating activities
without a boathouse? How could we build and pay for a new boathouse? How much
would it cost? How could we raise the money? How much insurance cover was
there & would they pay? What was the cost of all the tents and boats we
had lost? What fund raising could we do? Could we
borrow equipment from other Groups? What about summer camps? Boathouse design
by Chris Owens MA (Cantab) Dip Arch RIBA.
~~~~ ~~~~~~ River
Full planning
permission was granted on 28 Nov 05. The Site. The site covers approximately 0.08 ha and is approximately
3.24 metres below road level in the First floor (3 metre) level
of Building, This contains, male & female
toilets, changing rooms & showers, a disabled changing room with toilet
& shower, a small kitchen, a meeting room approx 8 m x 10 m. and a tent
store. Undercroft (ground) level of Building. By demand of the Environment Agency and the Planning
Authority this must be left open and free flooding, however we are
allowed a free flooding boat/canoe store having ‘hit & miss’ vertical
wooden plank sides with the boats floating upwards in times of flood. There
will be an open assembly area under the building and the remainder of the site
will be grass. Access to Building & Ground Level
Access to the building will be by a slight ramp from road
to first floor level. Steps with a permanent external chair lift will give
disabled access from first floor to ground level. A flagpole will be on
the front corner of the building. A gallery with steps from ground level runs
across the front of the building for riverside access to the changing
and meeting rooms. (Ramps from road to ground level for
disabled access were originally considered but were found to occupy a very
large ground area. They have been replaced by the chair lift.) Construction Feasibility
The architect, in conjunction with a Quantity Surveyor has
now completed a Construction Feasibility Report. This report, which was
delivered in August 2006, has examined 4 different construction methods and
calculated Budget Costs for: - .
The architect has concluded that the
simplest and cheapest way of procuring the building is likely to be a
relatively conventional method using traditional construction. The architect has also examined the building time scale of
each building method, all of which will be around 18 months overall as we
would be unwise to undertake piling during the winter months due to the risk
of flooding, and the very large penalty costs that would be incurred if work
had to be suspended. The ‘Way Forward’ is now under discussion. Whichever
method is adopted the work will be put out to competitive tender, as was the
clearance of the fire damage. VAT Relief. Very considerable VAT costs will be incurred unless the
building can be zero rated for VAT, But the
Scout Association has informed us that HM Revenue & Customs has agreed
that ‘Scout Huts’ that are ‘Similar’ to Village
Halls, which are already
zero rated, may also be zero rated. The similarity affects the use of the
building and has implications upon our lease. We are endeavouring to contact
another Scout (or Guide) unit that has been down this route to see if they
can give us any pointers. Ground Lease. The land is leased from Reading Borough Council, and only
a few years are left on the current lease. It is likely however that we shall
be granted a new lease with security of tenure. There are however at least
two conditions in our current lease that will prevent us from becoming
‘Similar’ to a Village Hall, and we may also have to rename our boathouse as a
‘Scout Hut’ which may have implications on our Planning Approval. These
questions remain to be resolved, but clearly there is much discussion to
follow. We are in any case responsible for paying the legal costs of both
Reading YMCA and Reading Council for the new lease! Funding. It is obvious that this new build will involve seriously
large costs, and the next question is how they will be funded. In early 2003
we examined the possibility of obtaining a major grant from the Lottery
‘Community Fund’, and it became apparent that we did not qualify. Early in 2006 we attended a presentation on the new ‘Big
Lottery Fund’. When the presenter categorically stated ‘We will NOT fund
Scout Huts’ we left! Reading YMCA are examining whether they can apply for
funding against the much wider remit of YMCA Children’s & Young Peoples
Work, but we may be clutching at straws, In January
2004 we had a 50-year-old wooden hut in a poor state of repair, 4 duchess
dinghies and 30 or so old canoes, a design for a new building that we could
not build, and about £10,000 in the boathouse fund. In January 2005 we had no boats, a burnt out pile of
rubbish on a site that resembled a bombsite, and £10,000 or so in the fund. In September 2006 we have 2 brand new Duchess dinghies,
twenty or so canoes, a design for a new building that has received Planning
Approval and we will have about £200,000 towards the rebuilding when the
balance of the Insurance money comes in. So how did we get there? Donations & Fundraising (The following figures are only approximate as they are
constantly changing) Since January 2005 we have received a very substantial
donation from Harry Beckett, and substantial donations from 3 other persons,
plus a number of smaller donations. These total £65,400. In addition Group
Fundraising by various sections and persons in the Group have
raised another £15,600. We have used some of this money to pay for Site clearance £12,000 Planning Application £1,000 Architect etc £6,000 The Building Insurance will only make payments against actual
rebuilding costs, so these sums have now been claimed back as stage payments.
We have also claimed approx £28,000 in respect of the destroyed building
contents and boats etc. All the monies claimed back, together with the
balance of the Donation & Fundraising money have now been deposited in a
Charities Aid Foundation Gold Account run by the YMCA, and are earning
interest. Money can only be withdrawn with the agreement of the YMCA Trustees
and will remain there until we commence rebuilding. There is a further
approximate £90,000 still to be clamed back from the Insurance Company as
further stage payments are made. Rebuilding Cost The Architect & Quantity Surveyor have calculated that the
budget cost for re-building will be between £350,000 and £400,000, and VAT
will account for about £50,000 of this. It is vital therefore that we get the
zero rating if we can. The very high cost is due to the piling &
foundation work required, approx £70,000, disabled provision (lift, toilet
etc) £12,000 &
other changing facilities £19,000. In addition we have also to cover the cost
of further boats, replacement tentage & other
camp equipment, and all the other furnishings and equipment required within
the building. Further Grants If we are to build a new water activity centre, and we MUST, then
we need to raise around a further £200,000. We shall
be applying to various grant making bodies, and a document setting out our
case (who we are, what we do, how we do it, what we have achieved in the
past, and why we should be supported) is in the course of preparation. Our boating is on the Sir William Benyon, Vice President of the Sir Anthony Durrant President of the River Admiral Sir William O’Brien Formerly Commander in Chief Western East Fleet. We have come
a long way in just over 18 months. Not only this, the Group has continued to
run albeit with a few difficulties here and there. We are
grateful to Reading Borough Council and the Warren Canoe Club for the use of
their equipment and building, but it is only a stopgap and we cannot do our
full range of boating without our own boats. Similarly we are grateful for
the use of equipment borrowed from other Groups, and to Sir William Benyon for allowing us to store some equipment in one of
his estate barns, but again we must get our own storage. We are also grateful
to the RBC Planning Staff who listened to our arguments for a new building on
stilts, and over-ruled the Environment Agency on this point, and to our
architect who has patiently explained points and found ways of overcoming the
difficulties of the site. We are also particularly grateful to
all those who have so willingly and generously made donations to our cause. In spite of
the difficulties we have held Summer Camps, Beaver Sleep-overs
and attended Regattas in both 2005 and 2006, and will do so again next year.
Fund-raising by various sponsored activities will continue, and no doubt
there will be many more committee and sub-committee meetings, and discussions
with architects and planners. The Purpose of Scouting (Taken from POR’s
Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Scouting) ‘The
purpose of Scouting is to promote the development of young people in
achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials,
as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and
international communities.’ The Scout Method
The Scout Method provides an enjoyable and
attractive scheme of progressive training, based on the Scout Promise and
Law, which is guided by adult leadership. In practice the method is best seen
when young people, in partnership with adults are: - ·
Enjoying what they are doing ·
Learning by doing ·
Participating in varied and progressive
activities ·
Making choices for themselves ·
Taking responsibility for their own actions ·
Working in groups ·
Taking part in activities outdoors. ·
Sharing in prayer & worship ·
Making & living out their Promise. As Sea Scouts we
cannot achieve our Purpose without a Boathouse. Our Target
To Open Our New Building in 2008, The Centenary Year of our Formation There is still a long way to go and no doubt many problems to
overcome, but the wheels are turning and we are making progress even if at
times there is little to show. We are determined to get our new building, and
confident that we will, since we are already half way towards our financial target. Mike Wyatt Chairman New
Building Sub-Committee. |
The
site is a very difficult one. The 
Clearance
of the fire debris by road was impossibly expensive as we were not allowed to
station large containers on the road outside, but they would have to be
located about 400 yards away. We would have had to carry all the debris up
the steps and then barrowed it away.
