Collingham Scout & Guide Headquarters Management Association

Collingham Scout & Guide Headquarters Management Association

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.
 

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.
 


We subsequently decided to forget about a lottery bid, and by Autumn 2008 we were a lot closer, having secured two £50,000 landfill tax credit grants, from WREN and from LaFarge, and have more bids in the pipeline. In April 2009, Noble Foods, a local company, gave us £4000 which guaranteed that we could afford to pay for the completed Headquarters.
Construction started in January 2009 and should be handed over at the end of April, ready for occupation by Autumn 2009.
We are now trying to raise a bit more to cover kitting out the new building with furniture and equipment.
How you can you help?
· 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, then we’d love to hear from you.

Contact Bob Imrie, Joint Chair
Address 4 Rio Drive, Collingham
Phone 893799
Fax 893927
Personal email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Group email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Download our Constitution here: (pdf) CSGHQMAConstitution.pdf

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