Saturday 25th July evening was a wonderful reminder of what makes our community so special. Over a hundred people came together at the Kenton Victory Hall to support the Dolphin Pub & Community Hub.
Between the live music, drinks and cheese, we gave an update on our work to date, including the planning application, upcoming steps, timeline, fundraising, and the remaining amount needed to secure the Dolphin as a vibrant community space. You can watch the presentation summary below. Some of you asked very valid questions at the end of the presentation and these are also addressed below.
The level of commitment and support shown so far has been inspiring, and Saturday’s turnout demonstrated just how much the Hub means to local residents.
We raised just under £600 on the bar and received 10 more pledges.
Thank you. We really appreciate it!
PLEDGES UPDATE:
We’re currently setting up a secure account to ensure all payments are handled safely.
Once this is in place, we’ll begin emailing invoices in August to everyone who has made a pledge. These will be due 8 weeks following the invoice.
From that point onward, we’ll move into the ‘Buy a Share’ stage rather than collecting new pledges. The process will look very similar, and we’ll share further information and guidance as we get closer to launching it.
We still need to raise another £100,000 for renovations so please keep sharing with friends and family.
Every pledge helps us to move closer to our goal. We can’t do this without you!
PRESENTATION AND Q&A:
For anyone who couldn’t attend the meeting, we’ve distilled the hour‑long presentation into a nine‑minute summary and included responses to some great questions that were raised on the night.
Committee Statement, following questions during presentation evening:
Whilst sending out our newsletter with the link to the Presentation evening summary, we thought we would take this opportunity to confirm answers to some of the questions that may not have been heard on the night.
Firstly, we are the Purchasing Committee for The Dolphin. Once The Dolphin has been purchased, we will need to either agree to step-aside and allow others to be sworn in as a new committee that will run The Dolphin as a business, or we will need to stand again for our positions and see if we are voted back in. It is not guaranteed that the same people will be in the same positions following the purchase, as the new committee will be elected by the Shareholders.
As the purchasing committee, we have done extensive works on turnover, and profit/loss analysis. This has been completed for years one and two and does take in to account the renovations needing to be done, purchase of new furnishings, fittings, stock and a potential loan should this be needed. Having researched many pubs/community hubs in a similar position to ourselves, we have been able to assess our position within the figures that these other community hubs are doing. We have also been advised on this by Plunkett, who are our Governing body – They have provided us with lots of invaluable advice. A copy of this Year 1 & 2 schedule is available on our website.
In respect of us providing food within the hub/pub, we have allowed for the installation of a kitchen area within the ground floor facilities. It is not viable to renovate the old first floor kitchen in our initial funding plans, leaving the option for a subsequent committee to decide if and when it might be brought back in to future use. Within our kitchen area, it is intended that we will be able to supply traditional pub style food, that will be sourced from as many local businesses as possible. This will include cakes and sandwiches for morning/lunchtime business and meals such as pizza, lasagne, chilli etc for the evening menus. Within the catering considerations we have factored in using the fish and chip, pizza and oriental street food vans within the car park, where people can bring their food into the pub and have a drink with us. This is not forgetting we will have a nice courtyard area for summer barbecues.
There will also be themed nights, similar to those we currently provide in the Victory Hall.
In respect of pricing, we will be looking to retain an excellent level of service, including a good selection of Ales and spirits. This will all be purchased through a consistent process as we do not want a fluctuation in quality of drinks or food once we are open – either up or down! Providing we are offering the above, we are not intending to be cut price, but we are intending to be a place where people want to come, not just once or twice, but on a regular basis.
Quiet Spaces for working ‘from home’
There are two rooms behind the bar that may be used as quiet spaces and also the potential of upstairs office space – however, that will be subject to the agreement of the managing committee. It is intended that fast broadband will be installed so good WiFi access would be available.
Liabilities of Share Holders: Question asked was: what is the liability of share holders should anything go wrong.
‘A fully paid ordinary share carries zero financial liability, meaning the shareholder has paid the entire nominal value and any share premium and cannot be forced to make future contributions’.
Please visit our website for full details in respect of share holders in a community shares project. www.thedolphinkenton.co.uk
We feel this should cover all questions asked on Saturday, however, should anyone have any further queries or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on [email protected]
THANK YOU
Finally a massive shout out to our Architect, Matt Ireland, whose hard work and commitment got us through the planning stage and reduced the CIL payment to zero!