A fillip on Good Friday

The tall figure of Peter Pemberton loomed on my doorstep this morning, bringing the wonderful news that the Vicarage Fund trustees believe our project to be a worthy one, so they have made a pledge of £2400. This brings our running total to £10,465, with 264 shareholders.
We are still receiving offers of help left, right and centre. It is fantastic. If ever a community deserved a good shop, it's this one! Not all the offers are from Strood Green and the other villages - we've even had Lloyds TSB (which we are using for our banking) offer to send the staff along as a team of decorators!
As far as timing is concerned, we need to stress that the planning, building regs and all the other paperwork involved with such an enterprise is going to take time. Added to this we have to work closely with the larger development at 1 Tynedale Rd, as the drainage and other services have to be sorted out. Realistically therefore, we anticipate the planning stage to take another 3 to 4 months, before we can start the refurb. We hope to have a big fundraiser - an Auction of Promises, within a social event - in early July. Please let us know if you can offer a promise! No matter how small - or large!