Independent Councillor Patrick Clarke has welcomed the awarding of a £15,000 grant to Aughlisnafin Community Association following a meeting of the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee of Down District Council meeting held on Monday 16 February.
Councillor Clarke had been lobbying the SP & R committee to grant the £15,000 to assist Aughlisnafin Community Association to help address an overspend due to additional unforeseen works that had to be completed as part of refurbishment of the community hall and extension of the parking area.
He said: “The community hall at Aughlisnafin is of vital importance to the local communities it serves and is used at least six days per week from September to June. Over the summer months it is also extensively used. Recently works were carried out to refurbish the existing hall, as well as the provision of a semi-permanent store and meeting room and extension of the parking area.”
“As the project neared completion it was discovered that there were two major problems on site. The first was that the storm drain from the main Aughlisnafin road was causing flooding of the front car park and the second was that the existing septic tank was in a critical condition and required engineering expertise to assess the problem and give a resolution to ensure that the tank was left to a proper standard.”
“These problems meant that completed ground works had to be undone for the problems to be resolved. The committee of the Aughlisnafin Community Association had no choice but to authorise the additional spend and fix the problems of the storm drain and septic tank or risk losing £110k of grant aid and donations and suffer the possibility of an unpaid contractor and an unusable rural hall.”
“Down District Council Building Control Department subsequently fully approved the newly refurbished Fin hall in November 2014. This approval would have been impossible without the intervention of a contractor and a specialised engineer who were able to come up with a resolution.”
“Aughlisnafin Community Association then found themselves in the position where they would have an over spend of £15k due to all the additional works that had to be undone and then redone to resolve this issue.”
“I am therefore pleased that following a meeting of the Strategic Policy and Resources committee Down District Council has now approved a £15,000 grant to Aughlisnafin Community Association to help address an overspend due to additional unforeseen works that had to be completed as part of refurbishment of the community hall and extension of the parking area.”
“Given that Aughlisnafin Community Association are a long-standing community group who have never sought any funding from Council in the last 10 – 15 years, this is good news.”
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