Hambledon Village Trust, landlord of the shop and Pendle Cottage, is delighted to announce that work has started on the new roof.
Scaffolding for the main roof will be erected in the next few days. Then, dependent upon the presence of an ecologist to monitor bat movement, and fine weather, tiles can be removed and work begins in earnest.
This phase of the project will include the main roof and the roof over the deli. The garage roof and flat roof will be done later.
A big thank you for the many donations that have raised enough funds to make this possible.
Continue reading for some background…
Fund raising for the new roof started at the village fete in June 2024. Thanks to many donations, including a £20,000 Your Fund Surrey grant from our County Councillor Kevin Deanus, nearly £90k has been raised, enough in the pot to do the work.
As with all roof works, an initial bat survey must be carried out by a specialist ecologist. This showed the presence of a very few brown long-eared bats. With encouragement from Richard Bayley MCIOB, our volunteer project manager, the ecologist applied for a European Protected Species Mitigation Licence which was awarded Friday 21st March. This specifies that work must be completed within a limited timeframe with minimal bat movements; it also removes the need for a further two bat surveys.
Luckily things fell into place. Our roofing contractor, selected after a rigourous tendering process, is available to start the work. His chosen scaffolders were finishing a job locally and were able to bring their scaffolding straight from there to the village shop.
Hopefully an ecologist will be available to attend site at the necessary time and the weather stays fair. Fingers crossed.