News Update Headley Pavilion July 2025

Every month, two Headley Parish Councillors attend a full Site Meeting at the Headley Pavilion with the architect, Flint Construction, the sub-contractors and consultants. This ensures that there is full and open discussion between HPC as the client, the suppliers and professional advisors. This also means that queries can be resolved quickly and decisions taken to avoid delays. For example, this month we became aware that the main hall floor concrete was not in good condition. We had to make the decision to incur the cost of re-screeding the floor to ensure it stands up to future wear. Because we had the electrical and plumbing contractors in the room we quickly realised that we can now hide pipes and cables under the new concrete. Although re-screeding is an additional cost, it has the added advantage that we won’t have ugly pipe and cable conduits running across the walls as we had before.

One of the complaints about the original pavilion was unreliability of the drains which often backed up or blocked. We have done a thorough investigation of the drainage system and made a number of improvements. This means the drains will be able to cope with the expected use and will also be easier to access if there is a problem in the future.

The inside walls have now been completed so the most visible progress in the last month has been outside the building. The 4,600 litre rainwater harvesting tank has been installed in a big hole and covered over. All you can see now is a manhole cover and the pipework for the control box!

The walls to the new foyer and hall extension are almost complete, and you can now see the size of the new balcony above. Walls to the extension at the car park end are 75% complete. Scaffolding is in place for the roof repairs which start this month and on completion this will be followed by the installation of the solar panels. We have also finalised the designs for the new kitchen area and bar fit-out which will be a huge improvement over the previous facilities for catering.

Although we have a few “unexpected extras” to deal with, we have also identified some savings so overall the project remains on budget and progressing according to plan.

Heading photo: Cllr. Deborah Chamberlain signing in at the construction Site Office for the monthly meeting.

Neville Merritt
July 2025