We have received the good news that the National Lottery has agreed to provide funding of £250k towards the project in recognition of the importance of the combined community and health centre project to our community. 

The project has now reached the end of RIBA stage 3, which means that the basic design and a costing exercise undertaken by the contractor appointed for the design stage of the Design and Build contract, Baxall Construction, have been completed. This has involved them in seeking estimates from a selection of sub-contractors and investigating various further value engineering options. 

The combined Wealden District Council (WDC) and Parish Council (PC) Project Board will have met in December, but at the time of writing, the outcome will not have been available in time to meet publication. 

All being well, the project will be moving on to the next phase – RIBA stage 4. This stage involves the detailed specification of everything pertaining to the project, and defines such things as the colour of the walls, type of flooring, location of power sockets etc. 

Towards the end of Stage 4 formal competitive quotations for the various sub-contractor work packages will be obtained, which will generate the final project cost. Given acceptable quotes, the main contractor will then be formally appointed who subsequently will appoint the various sub-contractors. 

The plan is that, following a successful Project Board meeting in December 2024, planning permission will have been applied for just before Christmas. The outcome of the planning exercise determines exactly when the main contract can be placed. However, this cannot be awarded until planning permission has been successfully obtained, which in turn determines when project completion can be estimated.

11 December 2024