The Development of The Hub

Since the 2008 financial market collapse, Central Government funding to County and District Councils has been consistently reduced year on year. To balance their decreasing budgets, Leicester County Council and North West Leicestershire District Council have been obliged to make cuts leading to services delivered to our community suffering. These cuts also affect voluntary organisations and charities, which rely on grants from local government to operate.

Three years ago Castle Donington Parish Council debated the impact of these cuts on this community. Ultimately there were two options:

1. Endure the cuts and watch important services decline, or

2. Where necessary and possible, take control of those services for the benefit of the community

Option 2 was chosen and in order to fund some of these services the local precept element of Council Tax was increased in 2014 by around £35/year (70p/week) for a band D property. This allowed the Parish Council to help fund organisations such as The Volunteer Centre and The Community Library plus take over some of the services no longer supported by the County Council. A further £5/year increase in 2015 to take on urban grass cutting, means Castle Donington stands as a beacon against most areas of 'overgrown' Leicestershire.

For 20 years through Village Appraisal, Parish Plan and on line research it has been clear that this community has desired a "Hub" of important local services. With the current financial pressures continuing, the Parish Council has been trying to purchase a relatively central building to enable organisations that support our community to work together sharing resources and thereby reducing overall running costs.

The Purchase
In 2016 the opportunity arose to purchase a building for the provision of a Community Hub. There were two possibly suitable buildings, one being Maharajahs Restaurant and the other the Tudor Hotel.

Maharajahs was considerably smaller and more expensive than the Tudor hotel.

The Tudor Hotel on Bondgate; a very large building with an equally large car park relatively close to the centre of the village was considered a once in a generation opportunity to create this "Hub" and the unanimous decision was taken by the Parish Council to pursue the purchase. This was completed on 15th November 2016.

Work Begins
In accordance with our financial regulations the building designer and the Parish Council initiated the local government procurement process and produced preliminary specifications which were submitted to companies wishing to quote for the refurbishment of the building.
After research of interested companies references were sort and a shortlist of 5 companies produced.
Planning permission was granted in October 2017, allowing the final drawings and a full tender document to be finalised and sent to the shortlisted companies.

Extract from the Government Contractor Finder website:
"The project comprises the conversion of a former public house and hotel premises to form the new Castle Donington Community Hub.

Works covered by the contract will include complete internal alteration, renovation & refurbishment of the existing building together with the erection of a new single storey storage extension.
The contract will be let as a turnkey project under the JCT Minor Works Building Contract 2016 (MW)
Acceptance of the eventual successful Tender will be made on a 'Principal Contractor' basis under the CDM (2015) Regulations."

In early 2018 these tenders were opened in accordance with the government procurement process. The contract was awarded to Keller Construction Ltd based in Ashby de la Zouch. Work is due to start week commencing 12 March with an estimated completion time of 24 weeks.

The Present/Future of The Hub
The building was completed in early October 2018 and the Parish Council moved in straight away. The Library followed in the December and the Volunteer Centre in January 2019.

Since opening The Hub has started running a cafè Mon-Sat as well as hosting many groups/clubs, functions and events. Details of upcoming groups, clubs and the cafè opening times can be found in the What's on Calendar.