NLHF Project Development Update – 14/11/2024
As you know, we have been moving forward with developing our project with the aid of the National Lottery Heritage Fund. As part of this in August we had our Mid-term review to see if the Lottery were happy with our progress. Everything was on track and at an acceptable standard which means that we have been able to move forward with developing our plans further.
One of the decisions we have had to make is whether to go for planning permission for the work on the Orchard site at this stage. We submitted for preplanning advice and received a response back from the council including a number of additional surveys that had to be done and some considerations that we should take into account before applying for the full planning permission.
We have continued with these surveys and have consulted with the relevant regulatory bodies. Following this advice we have taken the decision that developing the Orchard site as proposed, poses too high a financial, construction and safety risk for the Railway.
The plans for the rest of the Pendre site, including the new engineering workshop and visitor centre will be unaffected, as will the conversion of ‘Trefri’ to volunteer accommodation (although the latter is also subject to planning permission).
As a result of our decision, we have to relocate the buildings and spaces that we had planned for the orchard site.
There are several possibilities available to us, due to the work we did on options A and B. Once we have decided the best arrangement and location for these buildings/spaces we will then progress them to RIBA 3 and be in a position to submit to the lottery for the delivery phase of the project in the early-mid part of next year.
The NLHF advice is that significant changes happen to nearly all projects and this is a normal part of the development phase.
Liz Porrett
14th November 2024
