Extension Blog
For all the latest news, right up to date, visit Iona Lister's blog for the Extension Project.

Latest News (June 2008)
There is more good news to follow on from the recent installation of a ground source heat pump that not only heats the current Hall but will have the capacity to serve the future community centre.

Firstly, The Big Lottery has provided a welcome boost to Torridon and District Community Association's plans to extend the Community Hall. Its grant of over £34,000 will be used for technical assistance to prepare an application to Investing in Communities later this year.

Secondly, 12 volunteers from the Torridon community worked as marshals for the Caledonian Challenge on the weekend of 14 June, earning £1,800 that they donated to the Torridon Hall Extension Fund. We are appreciative of the hard work of these volunteers; also, it is heartening to see money coming into the scheme outwith the local community.

The Torridon Hall Extension Project aims to extend and transform the existing hall into a high quality, sustainable, vibrant and multi purpose centre. The new Community Centre will provide facilities highlighted by the local community. These include a function room, a fitness room, an audio visual room fully equipped for conferences as well as an exhibition area. Additional facilities will include showers, enhanced kitchen facilities, more storage areas and office space.

Extension News (2nd Dec 2006)
Much work has been done since the last bulletin and we now have funding in place for phase one of the project. A ground source heat pump will be installed at the rear of the existing hall. The pump will serve the existing hall and the proposed extension. There will be radiators fitted in the existing hall to give constant background heat. The infra red heaters will remain as 'top up heat'. The total cost of this will be £60,000 of which the community will provide only 3%. It is hoped that phase one will go ahead as soon as the paperwork is completed.

We have now instructed Douglas Stuart as the Architect who will take phase two of the project forward from the design stage. He instructed a Quantity Surveyor to do an 'elemental analysis' in order that we have a preliminary figure with which to begin the lottery application. He estimates the building cost to be in the region of £440,000 plus the cost of the car park. Detailed costings will be obtained over the coming months.

As part of the improvements to the hall the committee now have a full report from an acoustics expert on the requirements to improve the acoustics in the existing hall. This work will be carried out as part of the new project.