Autumn 2022 Levens Community Project update

An extract from the Parish Council ‘Winter 2022’ newsletter:

As reported previously it was always anticipated that work at the new Village Hall site was unlikely to progress until the Autumn, so it is good to report that work has indeed recommenced. Now the site has been levelled and cut-back to its perimeter, and following a competitive tendering exercise to identify and appoint a contractor, this next phase of physical work is the construction of the perimeter walls. These will be built to very technical specifications (particularly for the eastern boundary) drawn up in part by Cllr Mark Willacy in consultation with an external engineering consultant. The foundations for the eastern wall are under construction. There has also been a considerable amount of work devoted to securing the most cost-effective solution to bringing in the electricity supply to the site. Costs for this have risen over recent months and the Project has been concentrating on exploring alternative options to secure the supply and this remains work-in-progress. On completion of this work, the Project can go out to tender for the construction phase. Down at Underhill, infrastructure work is all but completed with some final stone-walling to finish. As a result, and subject to some final work on renewable energy supply, tenders for the construction phase are about to go out in order to start the process of appointing a contractor.

Whilst the housing market is currently in a state of flux, we are fortunate to have sold all but two of the six plots for self-build houses. Our Agents remain confident that the market for building plots in Levens will remain strong and that we can expect to sell the final two in the not too distant future.

The site as at late-October 2022 ©Tom Hecht

The boundary walls, late-October 2022 ©Tom Hecht