Ann's November Members Update announced wonderful news of a £100,000 anonymous donation and we have since been in detailed discussions with Sheffield City Council about the best way to move the project forward.
This generosity changes the dynamic of our fundraising as, in addition to Section 106 monies, we now have available 88% of the revised estimate for the project. Threequarters of this money is now in the Fund and the rest is due in early April.
We now do not believe we need to go through the process of obtaining money from the Lottery Fund.
Now in mid-January Sheffield Council has released a public Cabinet paper about the project on its Facebook page which some of you will have seen. Cabinet has approved the proposals, including the acceptance of a donation from FoPV of funds to start the process.
The plan specifies recreating an open body of water of varying depths with a re-profiled island and banks adding to wildlife habitat; the installation of a barrier to direct the brook over the spillway to prevent any future silting up; the removal of sediment to a site (currently proposed as Beighton) to serve as cover material for a closed landfill site (which will mean that it will not have to be bioremediated as it will not be treated as waste).
Everyone’s best endeavours are now focussed on raising the shortfall in funding and at the same time try to bring the project to fruition by March 2022 with a start in the Autumn of 2021.
David Young & Ann Lesage
