Clubs and Societies Detail

Collingham Scout & Guide Headquarters Management Association

STOP PRESS
4 July 2008 A further grant has been given towards our new building - £5000 from the Sir John Eastwood Trust, bringing the amount raised to almost £100,000.

In the 1970s, former farmland in the centre of the village was bequeathed “for the benefit of scouts and guides in Collingham”. It was difficult for any one of the scout or guide groups to take on ownership so an Association was set up, consisting of leaders of the groups plus a number of lay people. The Association owns the land and operates it for the benefit of the scouts and guides.
For convenience, the title deeds for the land were deposited with the Scout Association, which has a secure trust fund for that purpose.

There was already a scout hut at that time, but the land on which it was situated was required for building, so the wooden structure was moved and rebuilt on the new site. A further wooden building was subsequently added, so the hut consisted of a large hall, small kitchen area, toilets, a small meeting room and a small amount of storage. Further storage was subsequently added by means of a second-hand Portakabin placed next to the hut.

Security was poor and there were many vandal attacks, culminating in the blaze (below) on Boxing Day night 2002, which destroyed the building.

The fire that destroyed the original scout hut.

A packed public meeting was subsequently held in the Memorial Hall, and volunteers agreed to form a new Association, which would fund, build and operate a new building. The Collingham Scout and Guide Headquarters Association was therefore re-started and became a registered charity. You can find our constitution at the bottom of this page. We received £40,000 as an insurance payout on the burnt out building and have since received about £20,000 in donations and fund-raising.

We have invested money in clearing and maintenance of the site, and installed a security fence. We have also paid for all planning charges and architect’s fees.

A lottery application was put forward in 2003 but was unsuccessful for two reasons – they did not consider that we were a priority case, and our initial plan was too expensive. The Association then appointed a new architect, Noel Barrowclough of Studio G in Collingham, and agreed a new design, consisting of a large hall, with a “lean-to” style building containing the kitchen, toilets and small meeting room. A new lottery bid was put in, the rules having changed, but this too was unsuccessful, because the Lottery people had too many bids to satisfy more than a small fraction of bids.

An artist’s impression of the new facility planned for the available site.

We subsequently decided to forget about a lottery bid, and have already secured a further £50,000 from Wren, and have more bids in the pipeline.
We are optimistic that the building should be started in Spring 2009 and ready for occupation by Autumn 2009.

if you have skills which might assist the Association to achieve its goals, or
if you want to help us financially, or can think of ways in which we can get funding,

Contact Bob Imrie, Vice Chair
Address 4 Rio Drive, Collingham
Phone 893799
Fax 893927
Email bob@creditlaw.co.uk

Constitution: (pdf) CSGHQMA Constitution

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