GCR Goods Offices Appeal - Help Needed

The Great Central Railways needs your help. The Goods Offices on the corner of the old Goods Yard have come up for sale, and we need to raise the remaining £100,000 to purchase them. Help is coming from Charnwood Borough Council and the East Midlands Development Agency; but we need help to fund our share of the purchase cost.

The offices will be a vital addition to the railway, creating more office space for both staff and volunteers who currently work in very cramped conditions. It will also create some revenue generating streams for the railway with conference facilities, as a wedding venue, and many other opportunities.

Already the appeal stands at £4,000 and is constantly rising. We have until the end of March (March 31st) to raise this £100,000 or else there is a strong chance that the Goods Offices will be lost to us forever.

Please donate online via www.gcrailway.co.uk and the David Clarke Railway Trust. Your help is absolutely vital and it will put a smile on a lot of faces.

 

Just to add to this, securing the GCR Goods Yard offices at Loughborough not only frees up required office space for the booking hall and other departmental staff, as well as providing a revenue generating opportunity for the future, but also ensures this original GCR building can be carefully looked after/renovated and therefore not become a block of flats. As one of the few GCR built structures still surviving, it would be fantastic if it's future could be garanteed, especially to be once again used as railway offices.

Time is crutial! We only have until 31st March to confirm the £100,000 is there, otherwise the building will most probably be lost.

Please all consider donating, even if only a small amount! Every little counts! Plus remember, the David Clarke Railway Trust is a registered charity and therefore can claim gift aid on all donations by UK tax payers! (Link above in Jamie Steel's post)

Thankyou for reading!

 

Dear Moderators,

Is it possible to get this 'Pinned' on the forum?

Regards,

Andy Cunningham

 

All,

The official appeal announcement.

Regards

Flip

 

Ah! You beat me to it! =D>

 

http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/About_Us/Appeal.aspx

to donate online or to download a form to donate

 

If you are thinking of donating some money to this worthy cause, please don't let the deadline sneak up on you or catch you out. Follow the links above in Matt Yardley's post for further details to assist you in making a donation.

Many thanks.

 

Update 27/02/09

A four figure sum has been donated on the first day alone. Thanks very much indeed to all of our generous donors. Our online roll of honour and rolling totaliser will follow on this page in the next seven days.

Please note - all monies donated online in the next month (until March 31st 2009) to the David Clarke Railway Trust will be credited to the Goods Office appeal.Your email donation receipt will say "David Clarke Railway Trust." Your money will still be channelled to the ringfenced goods office purchase and renovation account.

PLEASE DONATE NOW AND HELP US SECURE THIS UNIQUE BUILDING FOR FUTURE RAILWAY USE

Taken from this link: http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/About_Us/News.aspx?ID=72

 

GOODS OFFICE APPEAL UPDATE
Scores on the doors by the 9th of March...

The Great Central Railway is seeking to raise £100,000 by the end of March towards the purchase of the former Goods Office building close to Loughborough Central station. See previous news items, or go straight to the appeal page (via the link on the front page of the GCR website.) To donate now, please follow the appeal page link.

By the 9th of March, with the appeal officially live for ten days an incredible £28,000 had been raised. A very grateful thank you to everyone who has given - there are almost 200 of you. See the online roll of honour below. The total doesn't include any gift aid which can be claimed, and with cheques / online donations still coming in every day, we are confident of going a good long distance towards the target.

Remember, we must demonstrate to our stakeholders we are in a position to complete the sale by the end of March to qualify for the significant grant aid being offered from the East Midlands Development Agency (via the Leicester Shire Economic Partnership) and Charnwood Borough Council. We would also like to offer our thanks to Leicester Shire Promotions Ltd.

The money raised will be used towards the purchase price and to provide funds for the restoration of the building. It needs to be reconnected to the electricity mains (and so does the weighbridge outhouse) not to mention rewired and replumbed. Wherever possible during the refurbishment, local contractors will be used, which means your money (and that of our stakeholders) will make a real difference not only to the GCR, but to the local economy.

The trustees of the David Clarke Railway Trust (who are coordinating the fundraising) want to express grateful thanks for everyones efforts. We've heard of sponsored events being arranged and one boot fair stall being held which raised £150. Clearly, saving the goods office is tugging at heart strings. Every amount is put into the ring fenced fund and appreciated.

Please note, all money donated online in the month of March (except those monies already pointed towards other ring fenced fund) will go towards the Goods Office appeal. Your email receipt will say "David Clarke Railway Trust".

 

News Update:

As of Wednesday 18th March, the total raised so far is £44,000! This is before gift aid is applied.

If you are thinking of donating and haven't yet, please follow the links at the top of this thread!

Remember, we need £100k before the end of March to complete purchase of these offices!

Many thanks,

Andy Cunningham

 

http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/About_Us/News.aspx?ID=77
Well it looks like they did it. I bit of good news for a change to cheer up all those GCR volunteers.
Information below taken from GCR website:

 

Fantastic news isn't it! \/ =D>

 

A great achievement and something that will help the GCR in years to come. A real bit of GCR history has been saved and it is only spitting distance from the station.

Like i said in my last post a real bit of good news and i'm sure it will provide years of good service as it slowly takes on the duties of the offices that are on the station, thus freeing them up for other uses.

 

Well, a lot is happening at the moment and a lot of projects are coming to fruition, disabled access will be available at Loughborough within a matter of months, includings toilets, and a revised entrance to the museum to accomodate the lift access. The offices will hopefully be in use before the end of the year, and the mountsorrel branchline is coming together, along with Swithland Sidings. New and interesting vehicles are arriving (SC1100 being the most interesting of all) and we've got new locomotives being outshopped or arriving.

It's all happening. \/

 

A slight note of caution!

The purchase is fantastic news, but the appeal was for 100k and the amount raised was nearer 70k, this means that although the building is now safe, there is undoubtedly a bit of a funding shortfall in the restoration kitty... so to anyone who was holding back, doubting whether this appeal would succeed, please hold back no more, the fund remains open and any further money raised will be put to good use.

This really is a very interesting (and indeed unique) building and we owe it to our forefathers to restore it properly and not cut corners, but it won't be cheap. It will be worth it though!

Phil