The Wharf Marple Project

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This is a copy of a newsletter published by the Wharf Marple CIC on 30 December 2022:

30 December 2022: Happy New Year to all our fantastic Investors!

Dear Friends and Investors,

We hope you are all well and enjoyed the Christmas Festivities.

It has been a momentous year for The Wharf Marple CIC. Thanks to you, our fantastic Investors, we have achieved our ambition to take ownership of the Wharf warehouse. In addition the COF funding that we secured during the year meant that we have been able to start the building work. These are tremendous achievements and we would like to express our thanks to everyone involved in making this happen.

Building update

Those of you who live in Marple will have seen that work has started on the renovations of our Warehouse building. There have been the inevitable delays to starting due to waiting on permissions to start etc but our Contractor, Viking Build, Matt Skirvin and his team have been skilfully working round this and getting on with other parts not requiring permissions.

The building is really starting to take shape now and with a bit of imagination we can see what a fantastic space it will be.

Wharf Watch and new corporate sponsors

We will launch ‘Wharf Watch’ in the new year which will be your go to place to keep up to date with the building works and get to know all the people involved in the works. We are very pleased to announce that a local Marple company, Techni Heat, (www.techniheat.co.uk) has generously agreed to sponsor Wharf Watch. Rich TV and Coolbox are Wharf Watch’s media partners and have also donated much of their time and expertise to create the films that you will be seeing over the next 12 months. A big thank you to all Wharf Watch’s sponsors.

You can view a short film showing the work that has been done to date below and in future visit www.thewharfmarple.co.uk to view the regular film updates.



INVESTMENT FUNDING UPDATE

The Community Investment Scheme will remain open until we have raised the full amount needed to buy, renovate and fit out. As the project is so visibly on its way more supporters are coming forward to invest in the Wharf Marple Project.

In the new year our grant funding work will continue and we hope to be successful in a bid to HLF in the next 6 months.

In the meantime we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year!

The Wharf Marple CIC Board

[admin]

This is a copy of a newsletter published by the Wharf Marple CIC on 20 July 2022:

The Wharf Warehouse is finally ours!



Dear Friends and Investors
 
Congratulations!  The Wharf Warehouse is ours at long last!

Today, we are absolutely delighted to inform you all, our fantastic Investors, that after so many months of tough, tortuous and laborious negotiations we are now the proud owners of The Wharf Warehouse!

Your team, led by Wharf Director Malcolm Allan, have worked tirelessly to secure the best contract terms and ensure best value for our investment going forward. Conveyancing is never a quick and easy process and that has proved to be doubly so when buying a Listed building with four sets of organisations involved.  All’s well that ends well though and we are now raring to go with the renovations. Exciting times ahead!
 
CELEBRATION FIZZ INVITATION.
We will shortly send out an invitation to join us in celebration of achieving our long worked for dream of saving this iconic heritage building for our community. This will likely be either August or September dependent on  the availability of a local venue.
 
VOLUNTEERS
Your investment together with the COF, HLF and McNair Trust grant funding we’ve secured, is why we’ve been able to buy the Warehouse building and now we’ll start the first construction phase of the renovations.   If you have volunteered to help you will soon receive an invitation to attend our first volunteer working group meeting. If you’d like to volunteer please contact our Heritage Director, Bob Humphrey Taylor on info@thewharfmarple.co.uk.
 
INVESTMENT FUNDING UPDATE
The Community Investment Scheme will remain open until we have raised the full amount needed to totally renovate and fit out. 
See the link at the end of this notice for the direct link to our investors page on the website.
Supporters are continuing to come forward to invest in the Wharf Marple Project.  The running total so far is a fantastic £200,000!  This is exclusive of our grant funding awards from HLF, McNair Trust, the fundraising activities and COF and clear evidence of community support that is so vital for securing further grant funding we need to complete all the renovations and fit out.
 
Next steps – we are applying for the final grant funding from HLF to create the Heritage Centre as well as Sport England and other funding bodies.
 
We’re looking forward to seeing you soon.
 
Yours happily
 
The Wharf Marple CIC Board
 

About The Wharf Marple CIC
The Wharf Marple Community Interest Company (CIC), is a social enterprise committed to acquiring, renovating and bringing back into use the well- known former canal side warehouse for the Marple community. The CIC operates the Community Investment Scheme to raise funds for the Project.
 
Further information
Contact Susan Ingham 07900935 835
 
info@thewharfmarple.co.uk
www.thewharfmarple.co.uk
Facebook: @projectTWM       Twitter: #Wharfmarple
 
About The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Using money raised by the National Lottery, we Inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.uk
Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund
 
About the COF Fund.
The Community Ownership Fund is a Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities scheme providing match funding to social enterprises to enable communities to retain or take ownership of  community buildings.

[admin]

This is a copy of a newsletter published by the Wharf Marple CIC on 13 April 2022:

Happy Easter to all our fantastic supporters!



Dear Friends and Investors,

We hope you are all well and are looking forward to the Easter holidays.

SALE UPDATE
As we are now into Spring we’d like to bring you all up to date with where we are on the purchase of the Wharf Warehouse. We appreciate how patient you have all been during this period and we want to reassure you all that it there is progress, the sale is going ahead, we’re almost there, but it is slow going.

As you know we had expected to have taken ownership of the end of the 2021 and we were very disappointed that this did not happen. For the last three months the Team have continued to work  hard towards completing the sale. We said this last time, but it bears repeating that this really has been a very laborious and extremely frustrating process.  It has been complicated by the number of parties involved in agreeing and drawing up the sale contract.

Despite your Wharf Marple Directors and our Legal team being ready willing and able to transact the business for many months, issues with the contract between the other parties have continued such that proceedings slowed down again. Added to which COVID struck their Legal teams which have impacted on their ability to progress  and resulted in more delays.
That said we are very close now to completion and our Legal team continue to work diligently ensuring that our interests are protected at every level and they continue to push for that completion date.

You’ll be the first to know when we have that date.

OTHER ACTIVITY
Meanwhile we have not been idle and have continued working on a number of projects as follows:

FINGER DOCK INVESTIGATION.
You’ve probably noticed some activity at The Wharf recently and maybe wondered what was going on.

As part of the normal conveyancing process the Wharf building has been surveyed to determine the structural integrity and we are pleased to report that, it won’t fall down any time soon.  The building is deemed to be structurally sound.  We also wanted to be sure that the parts of the building below the water line, principally the finger dock, were also sound and so we initiated a further investigation which has required that it be drained.  Our structural engineers together with CRT Engineer have examined the walls below the water line and reported some minor issues with the pointing and missing/subsided stones. None of which they agreed would impact on the structural integrity of the building. These works will involve draining and dredging of the dock in order to get to the site to repair the walls. Our engineers are working with CRT Development partners planning the scale of the works best placed to provide the most cost effective solution.  This will be agreed ahead of completing the sale.


HLF PROJECT.
The team have successfully delivered the activities funded by HLF 10k grant award. This has cemented our good working relationship with HLF and the outcomes achieved will all contribute to and inform the next HLF funding application.  The work has started on the next fund application which we expect to submit in summer this year.

INVESTMENT FUNDING UPDATE   
The Community Investment Scheme will remain open until we have raised the full amount needed to buy, renovate and fit out.  Supporters are continuing to come forward to invest in the Wharf Marple Project.  The running total so far is a fantastic £200,000!  This is exclusive of our grant funding awards from HLF, McNair Trust and the fundraising activities and now, from COF. A big THANK YOU to all our Investors. The extraordinary level of investment we’ve achieved to date not only enables us to take ownership of the Warehouse but is also clear evidence of community support that is so vital for securing grant funding, such as the COF award, Next steps will be to apply to HLF and Sport England for the remaining funds to complete the fit out and we expect, all being well, to be open for business this time next year.

In the meantime we wish you all a very Happy Easter

The Wharf Marple CIC Board

About The Wharf Marple CIC   
The Wharf Marple Community Interest Company (CIC), is a social enterprise committed to acquiring, renovating and bringing back into use the well- known former canal side warehouse for the Marple community. The CIC operates the Community Investment Scheme to raise funds for the Project.

Further information
info@thewharfmarple.co.uk   
www.thewharfmarple.co.uk
Facebook: @projectTWM
Twitter: #Wharfmarple

[Malcolm Allan]

I think this question refers to the old toll office and the two cottages on that side of the canal. Indeed all are still owned by the CRT. The two houses were originally for canal employees and then CRT employees. I believe they are now rented out with CRT as the landlord as it were. They have never been part of CRTs development plans for this area and were recently rennovated I believe as residential properties. None are any part of our project, but the grassed area behind the cottages will be part of our land, up to the bridge.

[admin]

Is the new "Marple Welcome Centre" part of this development? There seems to be two homes both below and attached to the buildings. Do people live in them or will they be redeveloped?

I believe those buildings are in the hands of CRT still and not part of the Wharf Marple Project, which is just the Marple Wharf building.

Cllr @Malcolm Allan is on the project team and may be able to tell us more about that and confirm if my understanding is correct.

[royal_marple]

Is the new "Marple Welcome Centre" part of this development? There seems to be two homes both below and attached to the buildings. Do people live in them or will they be redeveloped?

[admin]

The Wharf Marple Project secures £200k COF grant award

As an investor in the The Wharf Marple Project it's great to be able to update their page on the main site with news of the £200k grant award from the Government's Community Ownership Fund.

Looking forward to those opportunities for volunteers to get involved over the coming months too:

https://www.marple.website/community-projects/the-wharf-marple-project.html

[admin]

The Wharf Marple secures National Lottery support.

The Wharf Marple CIC has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £10,000 for an exciting heritage project, Market Appraisal and Engagement Study in Marple. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project focuses on developing the plans to bring The Wharf Warehouse back into use for the benefit of the community in Marple and beyond:

https://www.marple.website/community-projects/the-wharf-marple-project.html



The Wharf Marple Project will enable local people to discover the origins and explore the history of Marple’s canal transport heritage and how we plan to transform the former Grade 2 Listed Warehouse into a place where the community can come together and enjoy a variety of activities.  The CIC is in the process of buying the Warehouse, having raised an impressive £160,000 so far from local investors via the Wharf Marple CIC’s Community Investment Scheme.

As the development gets underway, we will be looking for people to get involved and volunteer their time and expertise for tasks such as market research, admin support, clearing the outside space to a spot of gardening.  There will also be opportunities for volunteers to learn new skills such as lime mortar pointing and digital media communications.  And we will be running a series workshops and talks on these topics for anyone interested in getting involved over the next few months.

The Wharf Warehouse is a Grade 2 Listed building of national significance, much loved and well known by many people in Marple and beyond. The Warehouse building was built around the time of the construction of the Peak Forest Canal and Macclesfield Canal in the early 1800s and sits between two Grade 1 Listed Roving Bridges.  In its heyday the Warehouse would have been busy as a trans-shipment point conveying goods to and from the neighbouring Historic England Listed Lime Kilns.

Commenting on the award, Director, Susan Ingham said: “We are thrilled to have received this support thanks to National Lottery players and are confident the project will be a big help in getting this important piece of our heritage we are all so proud of into community hands”.

And Heritage Director, Bob Humphrey -Taylor said “This iconic warehouse building is a hugely important part of Marple’s industrial history.  The Wharf will be front and centre of the Marple Heritage Trail and a place for people, young and old, to learn about Marple’s rich heritage. The warehouse, with new Heritage Display areas, will add a new dimension to understanding the explosive growth of Marple during and post The Industrial Revolution”.

[admin]

This is a copy of a newsletter published by the Wharf Marple CIC on 4 May 2021:

The Wharf Marple - Investment Update 4th May 2021



Dear Investors and Friends of The Wharf Marple

PURCHASE OF THE WHARF IS UNDERWAY.
 
The purchase of the Wharf Warehouse building is well underway and it’s all  thanks to the generosity of everyone who has invested in this fantastic project.
 
A massive 99% of pledged funds have been received which is huge achievement and testament to the commitment of Investors to secure the building for the community. Solicitors have been instructed and are working to complete the purchase, hopefully, by end of May.
 
We are now in the process of issuing the Investment Bond Certificate for each Investor. As you can imagine, with so many Investors this is a very time consuming task but we are working hard to get them out within the next two weeks. So we ask you to please bear with us on this, you will receive your Certificate soon. Thank you for your patience.
 
We’re looking forward to opening our doors to you all very soon, but in the meantime, thank you, and  congratulations to each and everyone of you. 

Do contact one of the Team if you need help or have any questions.

Stay Safe & Best wishes
 
The Wharf Marple CIC Directors.

[admin]

This is a copy of a newsletter published by the Wharf Marple CIC on 16 February 2021:

NEWSLETTER Feb 2021 -   ANNOUNCEMENT: FUNDING TARGET REACHED



Dear Investors and Friends of The Wharf Marple

The Wharf Marple CIC is very pleased to announce that we are now in a position to go ahead and buy the Warehouse building from CRT.

It is thanks to you, our Investors who have pledged to buy a stake in, what is quite possibly, Marple’s most important and exciting community project, that we have reached this first important  milestone. 

However we still need more investment to reach our target to fund the essential repairs, renovations and refurbishments, so if you can increase your investment even by a small amount that would help enormously.  The good news is that as owners of the Wharf it will mean that we’ll be in a much stronger position to secure grant funding going forward.

We are aiming for a purchase date of 30th April 2021. So for that reason we would like to forewarn you that we will be asking for your investment to be confirmed and submitted to the CIC by 22nd March 2021 for our planned purchase on 30th April.

And there’s more good news!

We are very pleased to announce that we intend to appoint local building firm MPS as our development partner.  MPS have generously agreed to invest their time and expertise up front to enable us to start the essential work ahead of securing the main grant funding. MPS are experienced in working on heritage projects and managing a volunteer workforce and so are the perfect partner for our renovation.  We will have more news on what they will be doing in later newsletters.
 
Next stage

As Investors we will shortly be contacting you directly with details of how and where to transfer the cash amount you have pledged to the CIC Bank Account. If you originally sent a cheque that is now out of date we will return this to you and you can either resend a cheque back to us or submit via bank transfer.

So please lookout for your letter or email and respond as quickly as you can. If you have any questions do contact one of the CIC team via this email - info@thewharfmarple.co.uk

Of course if you haven’t got round to investing yet now would be a good time to get involved.

If you require further information, just e-mail us at info@thewharfmarple.co.uk
 
Stay safe

The Wharf Marple CIC Team

Previous Links
If you are stuck at home in the current lockdown, why not have another look at the Architects Visuals and the Building Walk-Through video.

Architects Visuals
H2O have kindly provided us with a set of architects’ visuals for the whole Wharf site, including our Wharf Warehouse building. We should emphasise that these are not our drawings and they cover the whole application not just our building. Take a look at the visuals - click here – we are sure you’ll agree how impressive our part of the project looks, particularly from the front aspect and the canalside. These visuals show what a great improvement this development would be to the area and they bring to life the ideas behind our ambition for the building.



The Wharf Building Walk Through Video

Whilst kicking about the house one day, Chris decided to produce a ‘walk through’ video. So for those of you who haven’t managed to get to see the building at our events here’s a second chance to see it and hear all about the project. You may, when you’ve seen it, be inspired to increase your investment - please feel free to do so, every bit helps us to reach the target. Click here to view the Video (Just under 15 mins).

[admin]

Looking for a Christmas present for a Community minded friend or relative in Marple?

Invest in something special that could make a real difference!

http://thewharfmarple.co.uk/How-to-invest/

[admin]

This is a copy of a newsletter published by the Wharf Marple CIC on 13 December 2020:



Dear Investors and Friends of The Wharf Marple

We are up and running!

We are delighted to tell you that The Wharf Marple project is now all systems go!

The planning appeal that stopped any progress has found in our favour so we are clear to go ahead. In his decision, the planning inspector said “the converted building will provide a much-needed community resource…..and would constitute benefits in social and economic terms”

He went on to say the proposal will “lead to the preservation of an important listed building...and maintain the area’s prevailing character...”

We are back into discussion with the Canal and River Trust and now, because we have the planning go ahead, there are many more grants and funds available to us to apply for.

However, with just £35,000 still left to raise to reach our target of £175,000 to buy the Warehouse building, we need more investors, support and donations to help us get there. As we come out of the lock down restrictions that COVID has enforced on us, all our usual fundraising activities have slowed, but it hasn’t stopped completely and community spirited people of Marple have been Investing and donating throughout the year.  We expect to resume Open Days and specialist topic meetings by Easter - all being well - and look forward to meeting more of you then.

In the meantime, a Gift Bond from The Wharf makes a great Christmas Present for a loved one and we have printed Christmas Gift Vouchers ready to make it extra special.

If you require further information, just e-mail us at info@thewharfmarple.co.uk or visit http://thewharfmarple.co.uk/How-to-invest/

The Wharf Marple Directors would like to thank you all for your continued support and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year.

Stay Safe!

Sue, Malcolm, Andy, Bob and Chris

[admin]

This is a copy of a newsletter published by the Wharf Marple CIC on 10 November 2020:



The Wharf Marple - Nov 2020 Update

Thank you all for your continued support on this exciting Community Project

Dear Investors and Friends of The Wharf Marple,

We thought that we should let you all know that we are still here and the Wharf Project is still very much alive.
Like everyone else we feel that we have been treading water over the last 9-months and we still don't know what the future holds for us all. One thing is certain though, when we emerge from this current crisis, community projects such as The Wharf will be needed more than ever.

At The Wharf we continuing to work towards achieving our funding target and we are pleased to say that despite the difficulties our community continues to step up and support us.
A huge thanks you to all  for your continued support and investment pledges.

Marple Review

We had a great article published recently in the Marple Review:



Xmas will soon be upon us
Having trouble thinking of something different for a family gift. How about an a Community Investment Bond?

Here's our Gift Bond Pledge Certificate.



Planning Application

Nothing to report yet

H2O continues with the Planning Appeal process. Although the process will inevitably be delayed, we remain confident that there will be a positive outcome.

Previous Links

If you are stuck at home in the current lockdown, why not have another look at the Architects Visuals and the Building Walk-Through video.

Architects Visuals

H2O have kindly provided us with a set of architects’ visuals for the whole Wharf site, including our Wharf Warehouse building. We should emphasise that these are not our drawings and they cover the whole application not just our building. Take a look at the visuals - see below – we are sure you’ll agree how impressive our part of the project looks, particularly from the front aspect and the canalside. These visuals show what a great improvement this development would be to the area and they bring to life the ideas behind our ambition for the building.



The Wharf Building Walk Through Video

Whilst kicking about the house one day, Chris decided to produce a ‘walk through’ video. So for those of you who haven’t managed to get to see the building at our events here’s a second chance to see it and hear all about the project. You may, when you’ve seen it, be inspired to increase your investment - please feel free to do so, every bit helps us to reach the target. See below to view the Video (Just under 15 mins).



Stay safe

The Wharf Marple Directors

[admin]

This is a copy of a newsletter published by the Wharf Marple CIC on 3 May 2020:



The Wharf Marple - May 2020 Update

Thank you all for your continued support on this exciting Community Project

Dear Investors and Friends of The Wharf Marple,

We hope that you are all safe and well and managing to cope in these strange times.

UPDATE
At The Wharf we are continuing to work towards achieving our funding target and we are pleased to say that despite the difficulties that we are all facing the community is still stepping up to support this wonderful project.   A big thank you to all our Investors and supporters!

Despite having to postpone all our fundraising events due to Coronavirus, investment continues to roll in and we are now just £25,000 off having the enough to buy the building. Which is great news!   We are planning some virtual events such as Quiz Night and another Coffee and cake morning following Anne’s highly successful event raising £375. More details to follow when we’ve worked out the tech!

PLANNING APPLICATION.
H2O are seeking to resolve planning approval by the end of 2020.  It was always going to be a long process but with the current situation is now likely to be much longer. We remain confident that there will be a positive outcome.

H2O have kindly provided us with a set of architects’ visuals for the whole Wharf site, including our Wharf Warehouse building. We should emphasise that these are not our drawings and they cover the whole application not just our building. Take a look at the visuals - see below – we are sure you’ll agree how impressive our part of the project looks, particularly from the front aspect and the canalside. These visuals show what a great improvement this development would be to the area and they bring to life the ideas behind our ambition for the building.



THE WAREHOUSE BUILDING WALK THROUGH VIDEO
Whilst kicking about the house one day, Chris decided to produce a ‘walk through’ video. So for those of you who haven’t managed to get to see the building at our events here’s a second chance to see it and hear all about the project. You may, when you’ve seen it, be inspired to increase your investment - please feel free to do so, every bit helps us to reach the target. View the Video below (Just under 15 mins).



We will also promote this on social media complete with a ‘DONATE’ button, directly linking to our website investment page, to hopefully boost investment and donations.  Please spread the word and share within your networks.

Do get in touch with your fundraising ideas or your lock down stories - its good to hear from you.

Stay safe

The Wharf Marple Directors

Previous Event
The Wharf Q&A Session held on Thursday 30th Jan 
To view the detailed report from the Q&A Session please click here

[amazon]

Thats a lot of money its not exactly Bombing along is it .