We are delighted to announce that at some point over the weekend we reached the landmark of 1000 kilos of Carbon Dioxide saved through solar power at The View.  We know this is great but like most people we weren’t really sure what 1 tonne of CO2 looked like – so we googled it and found this.

This was made as a school project to help us to understand what 1000 kg of Carbon Dioxide would look like if it wasn’t invisible (which it is).  So now you know

Since our call for ideas of how Church View can be used to benefit the community, we have been delighted by your response.  We hope that over the coming weeks and months, we can find ways to accommodate these.  In the meantime, we are happy to announce that the old art college is now the latest venue for police dog training.  PC Steve Cordon and PC Raechel Hall are pictured with Charlie, a 3 year old Labrador cross in training to search for explosives.  Steve and Raechel work for the South Yorkshire Police Dog Training School and train dogs for a variety of purposes including drugs searching, patrolling and crowd control.  We are delighted to make parts of Church View available to support this vital training – even if the barking can be a little noisy.  The team will be on site on different days and different times, including evening and night times.

Click here for more information on the work of the South Yorkshire Police Dog section

Things don’t always go the way you plan. Our plan for Church View was well known, a vibrant hub for culture, creativity and the community in an iconic building in central Doncaster. Today, our plan requires a radical rethink.  After almost a year of uncertainty, we can confirm that the European funding needed to complete the building has been lost.  There is a great frustration from all concerned that we could not resolve the issues with the funder, but as our chair says in the press release below, it is time to move on.

So here we are, a building half complete and an horrendous economic climate in which to go back to the drawing board – but a tremendous desire on the part of all those involved to bounce back. There are no miracle cures and there will be no dramatic developments for the forseeable future – but to quote our chair again, we own the building and we aren’t going anywhere.

We will shortly launch The View business zone, a flexible workspace for mobile workers and have other plans which are gaining support with partner organisations.  But we can’t do it all – we never could and now more than ever we want your ideas. Creative business units might have demanded high spec interior design and finishing but creativity doesn’t.  We know that there are people out there who want to make things happen, who just need the space and a supportive partner.  We want to talk to you and we will be hosting a series of events in the near future to begin the conversation.

In the meantime, we think it is fitting to rebrand.  Church View was a beautiful idea, but it already seems to belong to a different age – conceptualised under a previous Government and very different economic circumstances.  Church View is dead, long live The View.

‘Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning’

Our press release is reproduced below.

It was announced today that the original £7.8m Church View project, to transform the former Art College into a business centre for creative and cultural business has had to be abandoned, and a change in direction be developed by DCDT.

Doncaster Central Development Trust today acknowledged that funding to complete the 50,000 square foot former college has been lost.  Work on the project stopped in September 2010, raising concerns that the project had folded

John Giddins, Chair of DCDT said ‘the Church View project is very much still alive but the development will occur over a longer timeframe as we work to complete the building in stages.  It is regrettable that we have not been able to resolve the funding issues with Yorkshire Forward but it is time to move on.

‘We have been in discussions around our European funding bid for £3m for 9 months without achieving a result.  Ultimately, we are another victim of these challenging economic circumstances, as we have been unable to satisfy our funders that we can deliver this project without risk.’

Mr Giddins added, ‘We own the building, on behalf of the community, and we aren’t going anywhere.  In fact, the first Church View development ‘The View Business Zone’ is almost complete and soon will be offering a flexible workspace to freelancers, start-ups and businesses.  It is also available for hire for meetings and events.

‘However, this development is only about 5% of the site and we want to hear from people about what they would like to do here.  If people have a great idea, we certainly have the space’

DCDT plan to host a series of open events in The View Business Zone over the coming weeks to consider new uses for the building.

‘Clearly we have developed the View Business Zone to a high, contemporary standard.  However, we recognize that some activities such as keep fit, yoga, art classes and music rehearsal rooms don’t need high-end interior design.  If people can live with functional but basic accommodation then we can offer attractive rental terms in other parts of this fantastic building’ said Mr Giddins

Details of the open events will be made available shortly.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1 Church View is owned freehold by Doncaster Central Development Trust, the successor body to Doncaster New Deal for Communities.

2 Church View was purchased by DCDT in 2009, following its closure in 2006 after The Hub opened.

3 Church View was originally built in 1913 and forms part of the Minster Conservation Area.

4 Contact John Wright (DCDT) on 0114 360 2004 john.wright@doncastercdt.org for further information.

In with the new

Historic is not too strong a word for it.  Our move into Church View is a small step for the three of us (staff) but a massive leap for resident-led and owned asset-based economic, social and cultural development in Doncaster.  The new Trust office, meeting and event space is a lovely, light, well-equipped facility that has already hosted our meetings and will welcome people to many more events in the months and years ahead.

We plan an official launch of the space in July.  If you’d like to attend this please contact us.  The friends of Church View, via this site and so-media, will also be invited to a series of gatherings about realising our collective vision for the building – keep an eye out for notices of these.

And finally, come and get your hands dirty!  Calling all green fingered friends: join us in a garden party, to plant-up the terrace at the front of the new space.  We’ve put off doing this until the current drought breaks, but that doesn’t look like ending soon, so we’ll be calling a planting party soon.  This will be followed by a courtyard clear-up, to prepare for the temporary treatment of this inspiring space, while we work-up longer term plans for the ‘green heart’ of the view.

Church View is now available for meetings, events and conferences.  We can offer a flexible space suitable for small meetings up to events for 100 people.  We offer refreshment catering at a highly competitive rate and offer room hire discounts to the third sector and public sector organisations.

Cabaret layout seating upto 65 people

Theatre style seating up to 100

We can also accommodate your board meetings

And even small ones too!

We are the greenest venue in Doncaster and probably the friendliest too.  We are fully DDA compliant and offer hands free wash facilities, baby change, induction loop and Fairtrade refreshments.

Our audio visual equipment includes Canon Projector and Web-connected 52 inch plasma screen.  The room is wif-fi enabled.

If you are interested in hosting an event at Church View please give us a call.  Alternately, you can complete and return this enquiry form

DCDT is committed to being a green organisation, and we know for that to mean something we have to ensure that the property we hold on behalf of the community is really energy efficient.  Here at Church View that has meant installing an air source heat pump, insulation, double glazing, energy efficient white goods and a Photovoltaic rack to generate energy. In the first month of operating it generated over 350 kilowatts of clean energy and saved the equivalent of 200kg of Carbon Dioxide.  That’s the equivalent emissions of driving a family car for 700 miles!

Click here to find out more about air source heat pumps and other energy efficient technologies we are investing in.

Click here to download.

John Giddins, Chair of NDC, said: “We are delighted to be able to award these grants to such wide ranging deserving projects.The community grants fund has already donated almost a quarter of a million pounds to projects in 2010 and this is a great way for NDC to round off the year and close the grants fund.

“The impact these community grants have made has been fantastic and groups including Doncaster Women’s Centre, M25 charity for homeless people and local residents groups who have run a number of projects for young people and vulnerable people in the community have benefited in the past.”
More than £20,000 has been shared amongst projects including: Doncaster Baptist Church, Doncaster Plant Works, Amateur Boxing Club, Doncaster YMCA, Sikh Community Hall, Hyde Park Angling Club, 66th Doncaster Brownies & Guides, Maridon Pastoral Centre. “We hope these grants can go some way to ensuring a happy Christmas and an even better New Year for these organisations,” added Chris