Aylesbury RFC

ARFC Refurbishment Update June 2012

Dear Member,
I write to you at a time where you are no doubt planning summer holidays, filling your Sunday mornings and Saturday afternoons with gardening, shopping, household chores and thinking when does the rugby season start again. For others though, the season never ends, especially with the refurbishment work going on.

As you will be aware, we started the work on the £400k redevelopment in February this year, the local builder we employed we dispensed with as he wasn't working with us to keep costs around our allocated budget. We took a measured approach on this and did not take this decision lightly. To keep the project on track we have since carried on with Club resource managing the build and utilising local suppliers and contacts.

We have completed the main building work around the new changing rooms and internal rework of the old changing rooms, we have also erected the roof trusses on this part of the build. The main issue, bar the weather, has been the fact that the main front wall was supported by pretty much nothing, so we have had to rip the whole wall down and start again. A sight that makes the Club look a long way from completion. Once we have the new steels in place on the front wall, we can then build up the walls again and get the roof on the remaining part of the Club. We can then progress the internal mechanical and electrical work and start to make the Club a club again.

These are all challenges, not problems and although the weather has meant we are 2-3 weeks from where we want to be, we are hopeful that the Club will be reopen for business, albeit not 100%, by the end of August.

I have to thank some of the people involved in the progress thus far, Aldous(Taz) Smewing, Richard Harboard and last, by no means least, Simon Roberts. There have been many others who have spent many a day carrying out work at the Club during the week and have given up their weekends to continue progress around the weather, many thanks to them.

We plan to have a launch event, hopefully in late September, possibly October, this is to be confirmed when we know when the Club will be fully functional, I will keep you posted.

We have had a result with the local ARLA build with one of their contractors using the car park as a base for their work, this has helped offset the loss of earnings when the Club is closed and has come in very handy indeed.

We also received around £12k in the form of a grant from AVDC which will be put towards the build, all good money and will come in handy with the build.

I will keep you further updated in the next month where, weather dependant, we hope to make great strides in completing the project.

Yours in ARFC
Dean Gray
ARFC Chairman