The Grand Pavilion has a new landlord. A 3-year lease, for “The Pav” in Matlock Bath, has been signed between local charity, The Grand Pavilion Ltd, and Derbyshire Dales District Council. With this lease comes an option to buy the building, for a pound!
After signing the lease charity Chairman, Gregor Macgregor said; “I am so pleased to see us move to the next stage of the plan, which I laid out two years ago. At that time we were seen as just a group of concerned locals, trying to get a futile campaign off the ground. Now we are a registered charity with a lease on the building we want to save.
“Agreeing this lease would have been much more difficult, without Lovedays Solicitors offering their services for free. The Bank Road firm has enabled us to progress, without having spent most of our savings on solicitor’s fees. By gift aiding their support, they have also given us a big boost towards ‘Matched Funding’.
“At the end of the three-year-lease there will be a decision as to whether it will be continued, terminated or the building sold for a pound! The decision will be based on how successful our charity is in raising Grant Aid for the renovation work.”
Grant application chief, Charles Beresford, said; “now we have a lease, we can start seriously applying for the money we need to renovate the building. We have already started talking to The Heritage Lottery Fund and will be submitting our first application to them immediately.
“This will soon be followed by lots of other applications. We anticipate that there will be funding coming from a number of sources. This makes for a lot of work!”
Director, David Mowle, described the state of the building; “this building needs a lot of work. There is water coming in at two points, damaging the plasterwork in the main hall. The Council has agreed to do this work.
“The next most threatening immediate problem is the state of the windows. There is also a lot of patching and replacing of the outside rendering required.
Dave, who is the charity’s building’s officer, warned; “if we do not sort these problems out quickly, we may need to replace all the windows and most of the plaster. All the help that we can get from supporters of our campaign will be much appreciated.”
Director Andie Brazewell is Chairman of the Friends of the Grand Pavilion. He welcomed the news. “This is a big boost for us. We hope that it will allow us to significantly raise the number of “friends” group members from the 937 that we already have. People will see that they are joining a group with a viable and achievable plan
“It also means that the events, which we are organising each month for members and guests, will get greater support. People will be even more enthusiastic about coming, as they can see that we now have a realistic chance of success.”
As to finance; Treasurer, Nick Whitehead, made it clear that the group is solvent and will be able to cover its costs. “Thanks to the generosity of members of the “Friends” group, and Lovedays help, we were able to pay the insurance bill for the first year; on day one.
“We will receive rents from the tenants in the building. That allows us to cover the costs of getting the building maintenance problems sorted out. We will then start to build up a fund to cover any major problem if it arises; e.g. with the roof.
“Finally, I would like to encourage everyone to use the Cash Machine in the Pavilion. Each use will give us increased rent, for having the machine on the wall outside the old Tourist Information Office. If we can average 83 withdrawals a day, we will get a rent of 20p per withdrawal! This costs the public nothing; the banks pay Note Machine Ltd and we get our share; as rent.”
Gregor
N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd
See our Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &
Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk
