As many of you will know we have made a major improvement to the cottage in the form of an external modern toilet/shower unit with an area which can be used for gear drying etc (thanks to Bernard ) . Hopefully this will limit the moaning about the toilet facilities! Bernard has also redone the electrics to current certified standards . In previous years we have reslated the roof and dug in a new water pipe –this has involved a number of members in days/weeks of work and substantially reduced the cost of doing an extension. The addition of the external toilet means that the site of the extension can be made available by the removal of the rail shed.

The next stage is probably to acquire or build another shed to be used for equipment storage and then to draw up a detailed extension plan . Although we don’t have enough funds to build the extension we probably have enough to do the foundations which is the most unknown part of the cost and recent revisions to planning guidelines may mean that we may not need planning permission. The owner of the field at the back put in a planning application for a camp site but has currently withdrawn it as he received strong objections from almost everybody in the village.

During discussion about this application the issue of the storm flooding that affects us and our neighbours was raised and in October there was a incident during the night when we next door and over the road were nearly inundated .The fact that this didn’t happen was mainly because excess water can flood through our gate into the field (where the campers would be) .This clearly unsatisfactory if only because it fills our sewage tank up to above the level of the cottage loo ! . Discussions have been had with the County drainage officer during which it appears that there is no record of the construction of the culvert that carries the stream across the garden so it isn’t clear who has legal responsibility for it.

The Welsh assembly has decided to impose a 50% CT excess on ‘holiday homes’ which we are down as so we could face an additional £600 annual charge the treasure has written to them saying we are a are zero rated CASC and should not pay any CT (and in fact get a refund for the last 10 years !) at the time of writing no reply had been received –but if we can out of it we would have to consider raising fees substantially.

At the 2016 AGM there was a discussion about updating the gas burners at which it was decided that in the long run we would have to move to electric cooking due to the cost/hassle of changing gas bottles and also because of safety/legal restrictions on the use of propane in hostels –we won’t therefore be buying any more gas hobs .so if anyone has any electric (or gas) hobs or an electric cooker going spare let me know (preferably with the spiral type rings) . In the long run this may limit the cooking facilities as we have limited amperage available (but would help the kitchen de-greasing issue) .Also wanted are 2 –3 foot mattresses in good condition, a fan to circulate air in the drying room and another dehumidifier.