Pumpkin Paradise

We spent the weekend in Pumpkin paradise! The quantity and diversity of Richard Ramsden's pumpkins and squash amazed us and had to be seen to be believed. We sold £230 worth over the weekend, making a further contribution to the shop fund. We all learnt a great deal more about these wonderful vegetables and really look forward to the exciting locally grown produce that Richard and others will be able to provide for the shop.
We also drew the October 200 Club numbers. The 1st prize was won by number 101 (unsold), 2nd prize by number 22 (Mrs Palmer) and the 3rd prize by number 135 (unsold).
We eagerly anticipate the start of the building work which should be underway by the end of November. We are now confident of being open for business by the middle of March 2009.

Huge Boost!

We received a huge boost today with news that we have been allocated a RASP grant of £20,000. This is amazing news, we only applied for £18,700 but they liked our project so much, they have offered us more. The only stipulation is that the shop is up and running by March 31st, so we have to make sure it is.
We have put out a request on Freecycle for any building materials people might have left over from other projects, if anyone knows of any treasure troves of breeze blocks and plasterboard, please let us know.
We really feel we are able to plan in detail now for the interior layout, lighting, flooring etc which is very exciting.

Really Nearly There!

We are really nearly there!
I know we've been saying this for a while,in fact we were starting to flag a bit ourselves. However after many nail biting weeks of negotiation, you would think we were planning a superstore with a sky high block of flats attached, it looks like an agreement has been reached and we 'should' be in a position to move in properly and plan our renovations by the end of next week.
The fantastic news is that Helen and Chloe received a phone call on Friday to say the Core grant and loan have been approved!!!!! The money is ours and is a huge boost to morale as well as funds. Helen took that call in a meeting for another grant with a possible £18,000 at stake. This looks promising but we will not take it for granted (!!) until we hear from them, which should be later in the month. We have also applied for a grant through Mole Valley, which after all the delays and obstructions we have had with their planning department, would make us feel a great deal happier with them if we receive it. That will be announced in November.
So all the hard work is starting to pay off and The Shop at Strood Green is inching towards a Grand Opening sometime in the New Year.
In the meantime, we are planning a pumpkin fest. We are hoping to sell pumpkins from Richard Ramsden's smallholding at the shop on October 25th, with judging of the best carved one on the 30th October. So look out for further details in the shop window.