Bell Hill Re-development

With our acquisition of Bell Hill and the increasing numbers of Pilots (including our local flying school) using the hill, there has been rising pressure on the ecology of Bell Hill, in particular, we have become very concerned by the increasing Health & Safety risks associated with human fecal matter. This has been exacerbated by the decision about 18 months ago to remove many of the gorse bushes from the area below the track.

In April 2005 it was decided to set up a study group to look into the consequences and to propose a solution before this problem got completely out of hand.

This study group was conducted in almost complete secrecy as the committee didn't wish to antagonise any adjacent land-owners before we had received full planning permission approval.

This permission has now been granted and building work on the new facilities will go ahead at the end of April 06. They are expected to last approximately 3 months assuming the weather is kind to us.

The building works

Initial plans were to provide simple toilet facilities at the top of the hill. However, we quickly found that various regulations were to impact our plans:

* Building Regulations 1991 Part M
* S.76(1), (2) of the Town and Country Planning 1990 Act places a duty on local planning authorities when granting planning permission to draw the attention of developers to the relevant provisions of the 1970 Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act. These provisions cover public buildings and places of employment and require any person providing such premises to make provision where reasonable and practicable for the means of access, parking and sanitary conveniences to meet the needs of disabled people, together with appropriate signposting.

As the proposed building was to be placed on a public right-of-way, we were unable to obtain planning permission for the toilet block without providing disabled facilities, and as a consequence, this must also include at least (based on 10% of current membership numbers) 3 disabled parking spaces - in addition, from the same Act:

# Access to the principal entrance or to other entrances adjacent to designated parking areas within the curtilage must be flush, at least 900mm wide and have a non slip threshold. If a ramp is proposed, the gradient should be no greater than 1:12, 1:20 preferred, (depending on ramp length) with a top and bottom landing of 1200mm long minimum, and 0.9m high hand rails for ramps over 2m in length.
# Access within the building, including corridor (1200mm width) and door widths (900mm) flush thresholds and lifts of an appropriate size (1100m x 1400mm) must be provided.
# Toilet accommodation, preferably at ground level, suitable for people with disabilities must be provided. A total internal size of 2100mm x 1500mm is required.

All these requirements quickly mushroomed, so our initial thoughts on putting up a fairly innocuous toilet block were soon put on hold for something much grander.

The building

Full plans are available at the Council Offices at Norden, Salisbury Road, Blandford. We encourage you to visit the next time you are near. A rough map of the faciliity's location is below with a picture of a similar toilet block. In brief:

• Single story brick building with pitched, tiled roof.
• Unisex toilet block consisting of 6 cubicles, 2 of which have full disabled access, 1 with mother and baby changing facilities.
• Hand-washing facilities and single shower cubicle.
• Total square footage: 390 approx.
• 3 x disabled parking spaces

License number (100043849) Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of HMSO. © Crown copyright. All rights reserved.

Building Works

These are due to start 30 April 06. In addition to the main building, various services (water, electricity,drainage) will need to be brought to the site which will cause major disruption to flying at Bell Hill for much of the 06 flying season. Provisional dates are shown below. The new facility will also restrict the amount of parking available and so it has been decided that the fairest thing to do is to limit parking at the top of the hill to committee members only (unless you are a disabled member). It was hoped this might serve as an incentive for potential future committee members.

Costs

As you probably know, the club's finances were pretty healthy, but still not enough to finance this project (currently budgeted at £87k). We managed to raise over £50k for the purchase of Bell Hill and feel sure that the same energy and enthusiasm will be shown in the fundraising effort needed for this project. Any ideas you have for raffles, fun-days, fetes etc. will be gratefully received. Volunteers will be needed !!!

The Future

Although there will be some short-term disruption, we are confident that this work will secure the future of flying at Bell Hill and prove to be a profitable investment in the Club's biggest asset.

If you have any questions, or would like to volunteer in the fundraising, please come to the April club meeting.

Please note - this is all still fairly hush-hush, the last thing we want is the natives getting wind of it and obstructing the building work. Keep it within the club and save any questions until the monthly meeting when the committee will be on hand to discuss it.

Thank you

The Bell Hill Re-development committee