After four and a half years of hard work, on Wednesday morning we will find out whether the plans for the Great Witchingham Village Hall Project will be given approval.  If, as we hope, the project is given the thumbs up then building work on the first houses should begin in the spring with the construction of the new Village Hall approximately 6 months later in the summer of 2013.  These are incredibly exciting times in the history of Great Witchingham. 

We still have an enormous amount of work to do over the next 18 months to ensure our village hall is fully operational and kitted out but with the help of our ever growing group of enthusiastic supporters (that’s you) we’re confident that we will be able to meet our objectives.

Should you be planning to attend the planning meeting on Wednesday please note that our application is 6th on the agenda and therefore is unlikely to be heard until about 11.00am.  I would suggest arriving at Broadland District Council offices on Yarmouth Road for 10.30am to be on the safe side.  I know that the majority of you will be unable to attend because of other commitments which is why it was so important that so many of you took the time to write to the District Council Members prior to the meeting.  County Councillor James Joyce, District Councillor Simon Woodbridge, Parish Councillor Kevin Francis and myself will be addressing the Council in support of the project. I thought you might like to read the transcript of my address in the hope that you might reflect on the words and share the same sentiments about community life in Great Witchingham as I do.  Yes, I am an idealist.

Over the summer months many of you also contributed to our children’s playground consultation by completing questionnaires and encouraging your children to indicate what playground equipment they would like to see in their local playground.  You will shortly be able to read the full consultation report detailing the results of the consultation process on the village hall website www.gwvh.org.uk so look out for the link from the home page.  Having completed the report the playground sub-committee have had a second meeting with Playdale in order to go through the specific site design brief which will be delivered to us on 28th November.  We are meeting with Wicksteed’s Playscapes on 19th November to go through the same process.

I hope that you’ve seen the article in the Wensum Diary or the posters around the village promoting the Jubilee Wood Project.  The saplings arrive on Tuesday ready for our first day of planting on Monday 12th November.  The Primary School children will be attending the site of the new wood on that day to assist with the planting process however you are all welcome to join us during the morning.  Hopefully the press will come along to record the event for posterity.  If you are unable to help out during the week but would like to plant a tree then come along on Saturday 17th November.  Planting begins at 10am on all of our advertised dates. I will let you know when the last of the trees have been planted.

Stay tuned for how the meeting went….