Black
and Minority Ethnic Community Partnership
Community Training and
Resource Centre
The STORY SO
FAR
Special
edition
ISSUE 2 – December 2005
As detailed in
our last special edition
newsletter describing the new England quarter development on New
England
Road, BMECP trustees and staff have been working extremely hard to
achieve
our aspiration in securing a community training and resource
centre.
In order to help
achieve its objectives,
and to secure its future as a permanent resource to some of the more
deprived
communities in the City, BMECP is acquiring a long lease on a building
to be built as part of the New England Quarter development on the
Brighton
Station site, in the heart of the City. Based on present drawings, it
is
envisaged that the building will have a gross internal floor area of
4,972
sq ft on the ground floor, and 4,329 sq ft on the first floor. Both
measurements
are subject to review following consideration of various structural
issues,
but both floors will be finished to a basic shell and core, with direct
level access from the road.
We are
presently occupied in final negotiations
with the developers as to the final structural issues which might have
an impact on the overall size of the Community Training and Resource
Centre.
The main point of concerns being:
·
To facilitate passive smoke vent from the south-west corner
·
To reposition the vents to suit the proposed layout
·
Of particular concern are service intake drawings, window schedules and
external works drawings
·
The increase of window provision to west elevation, south-west corner
·
To provide external plant space for condensers the only viable location
would seem to be Sainsbury delivery yard
·
The provision of additional natural light on the east and north
elevations.
We are also looking for all windows on these elevations to be openable
in order to limit the mechanical ventilation requirements
·
The position of the bin store remains of great concern as it takes away
valuable external window wall and is a potential source of disruption
and
smells at the principal point of entry to the Centre
·
Accordingly the desirable point for the main front door needs to be
repositioned
·
Soil stacks have clearly been brought down for the convenience of the
residential
accommodation above, but in many locations these cause great
inconvenience
to BMECP coupled with the size of the columns this is making it
difficult
for us to finalise the floor plans
Accordingly
our Architects submitted to
Sainsbury Supermarkets LTD the proposed planning changes to enable us
to
meet our requirements. Unfortunately their meeting with the planning
officer
planned for the 23rd November was postponed until the 7th December
2005
Without
Brighton and Hove City Council
confirmation of the changes it would be difficult to confirm the design
issues relating to the proposed layout of the premises
This has
obviously had an impact on the
Business Plan, fundraising and signing of the lease. These have all
been
delayed pending this decision.
The good news
is that we have been informed
at a meeting with the developer on the 9th of December 2005 that the
planners'
have approved the plans as put forward by SSL under delegated powers by
the planning officer.
Accordingly we
should be able to work on
some more accurate drawings and invite EYCDP to provide us with advice
on the best option available to us for the Crèche.
The other work
that we are currently undertaking
includes the following:
·
Completing the main Business Plan and the three mini business plans
relating
to the crèche, café and ICT suite.
·
Fundraising, to match the SRB6 funding allocated for the Centre
development
·
Meetings with other stakeholders, funders, consultants, Regeneration
Partnership
Team, SEEDA etc.
As you could
imagine these as well as ensuring
effective delivery of the various projects that BMECP is currently
running
have kept us extremely busy. The next stage is the
consultation with
the BME community and other service providers on the various issues,
which
will be done in the next few months. We will be contacting
you further
with dates for consultation.
Despite this
we are still on track and
it is anticipated that the development of the site will be undertaken
to
the following broad timetable:
TIMETABLE AND
MILESTONES
It is proposed
that the Training and Resource
Centre should be fully operational by February 2007. For this to be
accomplished,
a two phase process is being undertaken concurrently, and the key
events
and milestones in this development are identified in the table
below:
DEVELOPMENT OF
THE BMECP COMMUNITY TRAINING
AND RESOURCE CENTRE:
PHASE 1: SITE
DEVELOPMENT
DATE FOR
ACHIEVEMENT
DESCRIPTION
AGENCY
RESPONSIBLE
April
2005
Acceptance of
business plan and
agreement of funding
SEEDA
April
– November 2005
Completion of
agreement
BMECP,
Developer
August2005
Construction
starts on site
Developer
December
2005
Signing of
the Lease
BMECP,
Developer
January
2006
First payment
made to the developer
City
Council
31st March
2006
Final
Business Plan Submitted
BMECP
31st May
2006
Final Match
funding secured
BMECP
November
2006
Construction
complete, hand over
of core & shell to BMECP
Developer
November 2006
Last payment
to the developer will
be made on practical completion of the Shell and Core.
City Council
PHASE 2:
FITTING OUT
January
2006
Final plans
for internal design
and services completed; all consents secured.
BMECP,
Architects
November
2006
Fit out work
begins on site
Contractor
February
2007
Completion of
fit out work
Contractor
The completed
building will be able to
support a broad range of activities that are primarily designed to
enable
the Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities of Brighton &
Hove
participate fully in the economic and social life of the City, although
all community led organisations whose aims and objectives are
compatible
with BMECP will be welcome to make use of its facilities.
The end uses
of the Community Training
and Resource Centre will be decided by ongoing local consultation to
ensure
that it remains relevant to the needs of the target communities.
However,
at least 66% of the available floor space will be given over to
activities
that support job-related training and enterprise development. At this
stage,
it is envisaged that the fitted-out building will include the following
facilities:
·
Flexible rooms that will be available for training, workshops,
seminars,
conferences and community use
·
ICT training space
·
Flexible office space, including hot desking facilities
·
Business start up facilities
·
Reception and café hub
·
Training resource library
·
Crèche
·
Outreach services.
In order to
provide seamless and effective
services to the end users, collaborative working will be actively
encouraged
and promoted. Where there are clear gaps in service provision, BMECP
will
develop appropriate, sensitive and complementary services to meet the
needs
of the diverse BME communities.
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