Headline: Modernisation of Memorial Centre


Plans to Improve Great Missenden Memorial Centre

 

The Memorial Centre was built in the early 1970s. It has a large hall with a very large, high stage which can hold 110 people and a smaller meeting room with capacity for 30. There is a kitchen, toilets and also changing rooms for footballers use. It is set in the beautiful grounds of Buryfield and its location in the Centre of Great Missenden means it is easily accessed by train or car

 

A range of organisations use the Centre for a wide variety of purposes. These include wedding receptions, family parties, art and recreational classes and coffee mornings. The bridge club meets there and The Gateway school pupils go there for activities. The Parish Council holds its regular monthly meetings there and other community groups also hold meetings there occasionally. The Centre is often used in conjunction with events that take place on the Buryfield such as Lighthouse and the Easter Food Fair.

 

Such an important asset must be well maintained and the Parish Council and Memorial Centre Management Committee have recently completed considerable maintenance work including replacing the whole of the flat roof, renewing all the external woodwork and guttering, installing new front doors and improving all the pathways around the building.

Inside, the kitchen and toilets have been refurbished and, in conjunction with the three football teams who use Buryfield, the football changing rooms have been completely redecorated.

 

While maintenance of the current facilities is essential and will continue to be done when necessary, the Council have decided that the Centre should be modernised soon so that it can meet the needs of future generations and provide improved opportunities and resources for the community today. At its October meeting the Council agreed that a working party should be set up to first of all complete a thorough value analysis of the Memorial Centre; to ascertain its strengths and weaknesses as a community Hall.

 

 [The HP16 Community Vision Action Plan highlights the need to provide more capacity and better facilities for Village Halls in the Parish generally so this project is timely in this respect].

 

Proposals to improve and/or extend the Centre would then be considered in the light of this analysis along with the views of appropriate professionals. One idea is to remove the large stage and provide moveable stage blocks instead. This would increase the overall floor space of the main hall by 25% and mean that the stage could be built to any size and placed anywhere in the Hall. Other ideas include making the space more useable for indoor sports by providing bigger changing rooms, making the acoustics much better so that concerts can be held. The whole project is envisaged to take 3 to 4 years to complete

 

The working party will comprise 7 members and the Clerk to take minutes. 2 Parish Councillors, 2 members representing the Memorial Centre Management Committee and 3 members representing groups which use the Centre regularly. The first meeting will be held towards the end of January 2009 where a plan of action will be decided upon. It is envisaged that one of the early tasks will be to hold a public meeting and provide questionnaires to collect as many opinions as possible.

 

If you have any ideas of what improvements could be made, please do contact the Council on parishclerk@onetel.net