At the starting block

The pistol hasn’t quite been fired yet, but it surely can’t be long. . .

Today we heard from Roger Murphy (RRM Designs) our designer – a long-time friend of brother Rob, but he’s survived that – that we have the all-clear from the building control people to start seeking tenders for the work. This is a big step forward. He only sent the plans about two weeks ago and we expected to wait at least eight weeks. We met a team from Richmondshire County Council recently at a ‘green’ exhibition in Hawes, our local market town. Among them was an official from building control. He told us they had a specific target for approval times, from receiving the drawings to responding, and they met them 90 per cent of the time. Or maybe it was even 100 per cent? Can’t remember. Anyway, we were sceptical: no, let’s be honest – we didn’t believe him. We all know what council officials are like, don’t we? Well no, actually, we don’t: we just think we do, and a lot of the time we’re probably wrong. This time they came up trumps.

Anyway, apart from the ventilation for which they’ve given provisional approval – it has to be designed by a specialist, apparently – we will soon have all the drawings so we can go to tender. We expect to get a quick response as apparently (apparently) there’s not a lot of work around because of yes – you’ve guessed it – the credit crunch. We’ll believe this when we see it. Builders and craftsmen in this part of the world seem to be in short supply all the time. When people don’t move they improve, especially in rural areas. So builders, plumbers, electricians and so on may be in even greater demand.

Here are some more pictures of what the chapel looks like now.