Newsletter
FRIENDS OF TRENANCE COTTAGES NEWSLETTER UPDATE, MARCH 2008
Dear Member
As we approach the end of our membership year and invite your renewal, I want to bring you up to date with all that's going on.
The project to restore the cottages is now visibly underway – Restormel Borough Council is carrying out work to renew the roof. Their contractors are stabilising the walls, replacing upstairs windows and Cornish slate is being used for reproofing. It should all be completed by the end of April.
Meanwhile, the non-profitmaking Trenance Cottages Community Interest Company has spent the winter months preparing its bid for the money needed to realise the major – and exciting – part of the restoration project. The grant we hope to win will come from the Government’s Community Assets Fund and it will enable us, jointly with Restormel Borough Council, to create a building for wide-ranging community use. The following are some of the facilities that will be built in:
- Meeting and function rooms, equipped with appropriate technology
- A retail shop for the sale of quality locally-produced fare
- Space for exhibitions of local heritage
- Art and craftmaking areas – giving input to the shop
- IT and copying facilities for use by local organisations at low cost
- Catering facilities for users of our centre and others
- Letting space for use by start-up businesses
As we shall need support income to sustain our low-charging policy for the benefit of everyone in the community, the Friends will continue to organise family events in Trenance Gardens and actively encourage a steady growth in membership.
THIS YEAR’S EVENTS PLANNED SO FAR
Sunday May 4th - Trenance Spring Fayre, in the gardens close to the cottages, from 11am until 4pm. Duck racing, Treasure Hunt, Fancy Dress competition (theme: cartoon characters), Bouncy Castle, Brass Bands, Barbecue and Charity stalls, plus much more. Free admission.
Sunday May 11th - Crazy Golf Fun Day on the course near Newquay Zoo. 10am until 5pm. Reduced admission charges with all players being entered in a draw for good prizes. By courtesy of John Littlefield – all proceeds to the Friends.
Jazz in the Park - always popular when the weather behaves! We are hoping for a date on a Sunday afternoon in July. Watch this space!
Santa’s Grotto – the white-haired old gentleman tells us he loves Trenance and his train ride to Newquay so much that he’ll be back again in early December.
MEMBERSHIP
The committee has decided to increase annual membership subs from April 1st to £3 for an individual member (children up to 16 free) and to invite corporate membership – local businesses - to pay £25. A draw will be held twice a year and members notified if they are a winner. A newsletter will be circulated at least twice a year. Membership will run until the end of March 2009.
Please send your membership payment (cheques payable to "Friends of Trenance Cottages") to the Honourary Treasurer, Reg Warman, at Woodlands Farm, Lane, Newquay, TR8 4NY. Please enclose a SAE.
OR – you can renew at any of our events...
AND – we shall be manning our stall by the cottages each Sunday (11-4) from May 25th this year. As well as membership, slates will be on sale, T-Towels, postcards and, from time to time, other mementos to increase our funds.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIRMAN, TED O'DELL
"Thank you for supporting the work of the Friends. Your contribution as a member is very valuable to us. When we have restored the cottages, we shall need to continue fund-raising in order to sustain the project as a multi-functional facility for use by all the community. It is important to stress that we have constituted both the Friends and the Community Interest Company in such a way as to ensure that Trenance Cottages remains in the People’s ownership. No individual or group of individuals and no council will be able to use them for commercial or self-gain, and they will always be there to provide services to the population of Newquay first, and our valuable visitors second.
Our next aim this year is to convert or reconstitute the Friends of Trenance Cottages as a charity. This will give us benefits both in terms of tax liability and also the potential to apply for grants.
Please renew your membership. Present members who have not renewed by May 4th (our Spring Fayre day) will, I'm afraid, have to be removed from the membership list. We don't want to lose you! Please continue to support our events too – Newquay needs family events, and by the way you have turned out for our previous ones, we know you enjoy them too!