Introduction:
I found this commentary from the Memorial Hall Committee Minutes dated 12th January 2015:
Car Park- The car park is thinly covered in places and so it was agreed to obtain planings* to resurface. It was suggested that Roger Holden may roll the surface. [Action]NM
* Road planings, also known as road scalpings or road scrapings, are recycled material from dug up roads
The committee cannot be accused of not desiring improvements and change, but typical of many community centres, it is a case of the priority and financial support which decides the activity and action.
As you know, with the setting up of the joint Parish Council and Memorial Hall Project Team we have made progress in many areas: roof replacement, LED lighting, stage curtains, refurbishment of Ladies, Gents, Jubilee Room, kitchen and of course ground source heating. There are many other changes but it is sometimes difficult for the community to see those changes unless they either come into the hall for events such as W.I., toddlers group. So how many would know we replaced all the suspended roof tiles in both the main hall and Jubilee Room? Or replaced ALL the hall’s windows? It is only when people can see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ status of a hall’s aspect do they really notice for themselves the changes. And something such as the tarmacking of the car park is such a clear and visible change.
Before tarmac (BT)
The state of the car park was functional: the surface was a combination of patch tarmac and planings. There was no parking lineage at all. The source for the planings came from local roadworks and tipped and spread manually. It was a labour of love from volunteers with ‘contacts’ in the road haulage business. Sometimes we would get an offer of spare recycled tarmac stones which we would pay for from the accounts.
We have always had access to manhole covers for the drains and sewage, and for the purpose of car parking what we had was good enough with little to complain about other than when it got a bit busy from time to time.
The car park invited donations from visitors when they do park in our hall car park .The money is actually our third largest income stream but our estimates of the percentage of givers to visitors is around 20%. And with donations averaging a pound or two, it was clear that any significant improvement in the car park surface was not going to happen overnight.
I knew personally a number of large village halls in the Ribble Valley (Grindleton, West Bradford, Chipping) were doing major improvements in their hall ‘offer’ and these included making the car parking more attractive and organised with signage. It was becoming clear that as an eye feature, our Memorial Hall was a great (large) hall but the outside environment was not attractive, and people will judge accordingly. I suspect when I talked to locals about our plans and ambitions, many were sympathetic but sceptical about anything changing. And who could blame them?!
For the Memorial Hall, the Covid years were significant for two reasons: it resulted in lock down for long periods of time, and our hall was empty. It was also our opportunity to do some work which did not incur breaking the rules and allowed us to work ‘undisturbed’. Secondly, the lifting of restrictions of movement resulted in the village being the go-to location for thousands of people – and their newly acquired dog! The village became packed with visitors and all the car parking in the village was overwhelmed. This resulted in our committee being more pro-active in prioritising the car park for improvement, but only if we had the finances to do the work.
When Margaret Carrington alerted us as to the potential funding from Ribble Valley Borough Council (RVBC) in 20.11.23 and suggested we go for the tarmacking of the car park, it was a clear and obvious opportunity to act and get it done. (We also considered installing electric vehicle chargers as well, but we subsequently suspended this due to the additional costs). I wrote a report for the Parish Council outlining the scope and benefits of the proposal which was then used as part of the Parish Council’s submission.
The Borough Council were positive in their review of our plan and that started the ball rolling. Literally three weeks later we were notifying a number of tarmac companies of our project and inviting them to come for a site visit.
At this point I would like to mention a villager who has been my mentor throughout the project, from pre-conception to actual delivery: Roger Holden, who has worked in the tarmac business, has been a source of knowledge and patient humour throughout this period, and explained the technical side of things (base tarmac, surface coarse etc.) so that when the bids came in, he was able to elucidate and advise on each submission.
It made a big difference to have someone on the inside track of how these things work.
The process of selection included two important features:
- we ensured each company knew exactly the same as each other as to what areas were to be done, including man hole covers, drains etc.
- the same quality of surface for each of the particular areas to be covered
It is fair to say that we were fortunate to get the responses we did (eventually) and after reviewing them, there was a clear leader in the tenders whom we duly contacted to agree the work.
Post tarmac (PT)
Following the tender process, in mid-March, we invited Ramsbottom’s of Haighton to confirm their interest again, and accepted their tender as the lowest bid. We then proceeded to work with them as to the possible date of activity. This is not easy for a number of reasons: we had bookings throughout the Summer, the tarmac work activity is somewhat weather dependent, and of course, Ramsbottom’s are a successful company working all over Lancashire, so their work schedule was always busy.
However, we knew that there was a window in early September which we highlighted to Ramsbottom’s in June and that was the agreed target time. And just in time as the Bowling Club, who needed access to their Green from the car park would have finished their season!
The work commenced in two parts: the preparation of surfaces and drains, elimination of any grassed areas, collection of redundant concrete pathway stones etc. which took place from Monday 16th September, and continued to the following week (23rd Sept) which was the actual laying of tarmac and top cover. Small pieces of work such as laying new tarmac to slot alongside the current playground floor surface was requested by the Parish Council and this has been achieved.
The operation went as smoothly (although the service delivery by the tarmac supplier was very hit and miss) and the car park was re-opened again on Thursday 26th.
The attached photos give a much better understanding of the work involved at all these various stages.
Post Script
As with most projects, there is sometimes a finality of emotion when it has been completed. Some would say an expectation it would happen and so when it does, what was all the fuss about?
However, the project is not quite finished, as we have to add the parking space lines, mark off the prohibited parking areas, identify the Disabled designated space, and return the six decorative Silver Birch trees’ pots to their former positions.
We do want to maximise the car parking numbers but not at the expense of safety and aesthetics despite, at the end of the day, it being a car park with a tarmac surface.
But we as a Memorial Hall committee are extremely grateful for the support of RVBC, the opportunity the funding has allowed us to both improve the look of the car park, have a properly drained surface and something of which the community can be proud.
Could I also express the Committee’s thanks to the Parish Council, and in particular the Chair Margaret Carrington, for all the support, guidance and financial facilitation in the tarmac project which has resulted in an amazing improvement both visually and functionally.
Yours sincerely,
Niall Macfarlane
Chair, ABC War Memorial Hall
