Congresbury Cricket Club president Les Owen has decided to stand down from his role of leading the team behind plans to rebuild the ageing Rec Club and asked for the following to be posted on the village website.

In his resignation note to the club’s trustees he said:

“Some of you will recall that I volunteered to lead a project which we named Plan B in 2020. Originally this was to produce a ‘Plan B’ for the refurbishment/replacement of the ageing Rec Club building in the event that the New Village Hall project was not successful (which turned out to be the case). This became Project Construct when the NVH project ended

Since then, in summary, Project Construct has:

1. Produced high level concept plans for a new building and got support of the Trustees, the Rec Club and the CC/FC/TC and the Parish Council
2. Engaged architects (Stride Treglown) to produce more detailed plans to satisfy ECB and Sport England requirements
3. Engaged numerous consultants to produce reports to enable an application for planning permission to be submitted mid 2022
4. Received planning consent from N Somerset in December 2022
5. Attempted to kick off the fund raising by seeking local community support and the development of local fund raising targets and plans, an essential first step before approaching grant funding bodies, corporates, HNWs etc

I put a very substantial amount of my time into this phase over two and a half years. I have tried to get the local fund raising off the ground but the lack of support from local people willing to take responsibility for elements of this has been very disappointing. After six months of trying to find an individual or small group who would lead this there were some volunteers in August 2023. However there has been very little progress since then not least because those volunteers have full time jobs and family and other responsibilities. I thank them for their efforts but we are not making any meaningful progress and I think it is time for a change.

Whilst I remain supportive I am no longer prepared to keep banging my head against a wall facing the apathy shown by many from whom I had hoped for more tangible support.  I have decided that I am not going to continue trying to lead this initiative. I will continue to support the project if that would be helpful if someone else, or a group of people, steps up to lead it going forward. I feel that new leadership is needed if there is any chance of getting local fund raising going.”