We’ve just heard that we’ve been shortlisted to receive £12,000 from the M&S Community Energy Fund – and it could be more if our project is chosen to be one of their flagships.

We are still to receive details on the next stage of the project, but in brief, we will be invited to set up a web page on the Energy Fund website from the beginning of August; then, from September 1st we’ll need to get as much support for it as possible.

So let’s not forget the lessons learnt in recent days:  every vote really does count!

More details to follow.

£348,000 so far!  Our initial fundraising aim was £380,000 so that is an incredible achievement – 92% of the target raised! Many thanks to all our supporters.

Unfortunately, costs have also risen.  A while back, we revised our fundraising aim to £460,000, which puts us back down to 75% achievement, but in fact the target will probably have to increase further.

We are currently working on firming up all the costs in more detail.  Some aspects have worked out to be less than our initial estimates.  The main things that look to be a lot more expensive are:

• Our two main staircases will have to be custom built for around 65k – about £40k more than anticipated;
• our ventilation system will cost about £45k – about 30k more than anticipated;
• and our foundations will cost £60-90k which is about £30-60k more than anticipated.

These changes are partly due to the initial unknowns of a pioneering building, and partly because the building has developed beyond our initial sketches in order to be fit for purpose.