Yesterday the spring Horticultural Show was held in Great Waldingfield Village Hall. I don’t know whether it was the difficult growing conditions this spring, or the impact of the gloomy economic environment, but the Show was quieter than usual which is disappointing. The next event is on 12th September and I hope that more people will come along to see the exhibits or even consider submitting an entry. It is all good fun, and one really never knows what is going to take the judge’s fancy!
The prizes were given by John Steele, the Chairman of the Parish Council, who is pictured above.
John has been working very hard recently with other members of the Parish Council, to bring the Hall up to scratch. A major refurbishment, likely to cost tens of thousands of pounds, is now underway.
Filling in the forms to obtain grants towards the completion of the work is a complex and sometimes frustrating business. Quite a lot of progress has already been made. Babergh has already promised £25,000, and Colin Spence has used some of his locality budget from the County Council to help with the scheme.
An exciting development is the decision to use environmentally friendly technology to provide a new heating system. The current system costs almost £3000 a year to run and is not very environmentally friendly. It is hoped to use a combination of improved insulation, solar panels and a bore hole ground sourced heat pump to heat the hall in future. In addition to cost savings, and the possibility of actually generating surplus electricity for the grid, carbon emissions should also be significantly reduced.
