May, 2024. A public consultation has been launched by Scottish Borders Council to test the public response to our proposal to obtain a lease over Hay Lodge Depot for use as our new long term home. You voted overwhelmingly for that to happen. Fast forward to today and a second public consultation is now taking place to test the public response to our offer of £1.00 to purchase the building. Why didn’t the first response make things happen you may ask. The answer is simple. The building needs many tens of thousands of pounds spent on it to make it safe and fit for purpose. The building owners, Peebles Common Good Fund were unwilling to sanction any expenditure and we believe the only way forward is for us to raise the funding to turn this into the viable Community Asset it deserves to be. Community Asset Transfer of buildings like this is a legal process, as is the need for the eight week long public consultation we are now two weeks into. We can’t change that, but you can help by adding your name to the growing body of support for this move we already have. Thank you for that support. At the moment it is the only thing that is keeping us going. The consultation can be accessed here, or by calling in to the County Buildings and filling out a paper copy.
Congratulations to Reuben Singleton who has become our number 1,000 follower on Facebook. As promised a small gift will be delivered to Rueben shortly. We managed to increase our followers from about 970 to 1001 in just a few days. There was a serious point to this. You will hopefully know by now that our plans to take ownership of Hay Lodge Depot are currently being tested by Scottish Borders Council in a public consultation. Having a solid foundation demonstrable by a growing following on social media is another way we can demonstrate to both the Council and to our elected Councillors, who will make the final decision on this matter, that we mean business and that we have the public firmly behind us. We will have a decision by early next year. We remain hopeful of a positive outcome. ...
Thank you to everyone who has taken the trouble to complete the public consultation running at present regarding our application to take ownership of Hay Lodge Depot. Now we need to work on those of you who haven’t yet done so. The link we posted on Monday will be valid for eight weeks. Sorry to any of you who tried to complete it yesterday when SBC took their website off line for a bit. Final ask. We now have almost 1000 followers on Facebook. Wouldn’t you like to be that person? As a wee incentive there is a nice hand turned dish waiting for you as a gift from us for your continued support. ...
The public consultation regarding our proposal to purchase Hay Lodge Depot for £1.00, and to refurbish it from a cold, damp shell into a vibrant, useful Community Space is now live and can be found using this link. scotborders.citizenspace.com/customer-communities/haylodgedepot/
There are 975 of you out there who have liked our Facebook page, so let’s swamp Scottish Borders Council with positive, supporting comments. Can you also please share this post and link as widely as possible to achieve maximum coverage.
Make no mistake. The results of this survey will make or break our proposal. We are in your hands now.
On Monday 19 October, a public consultation will be launched by Scottish Borders Council in relation to our bid of £1.00 for Hay Lodge Depot. It will run for eight weeks and a link will be posted. Much will be said about the fact that we aspire to take ownership of a building said to be valued at £85,000 for a peppercorn sum. We want the public to be in possession of the whole picture before they comment on this matter. Firstly, we have already spent around £7,000 of our own funds getting to this point. Various professional surveys and £3,500 safely removing asbestos mentioned below. That, we hope, shows we mean business and is a sum we would much rather have spent on improving facilities for our Members. The building is a largely unheated, damp shell with rotten structural timbers that have been there for many years. Previous authorities hid the problem under asbestos boarding but it didn’t go away. There is no kitchen, no insulation, no damp proof course, inappropriate render on the walls, damaged rainwater guttering adding to the damp issue and only one WC. We have estimates to replace the damaged ceiling joists and upper floor amounting to approximately £20,000. That would allow us to safely occupy the space. The damp ingress solution has been estimated at £30,000. We would guess, but have not yet costed, that the other work needed to make this a functional community space will be many tens of thousands. The reason we find ourselves here now is that SBC and our Common Good Committee spent the last two years trying to get us to sign a ten year lease including taking on responsibility for all of the above whilst steadfastly refusing to spend a penny on making good the structural issues in the building which they still own. Frankly, that process nearly broke us. Constant arguing over irrelevant details, presentation of multiple problems and no solutions, making us feel like we were not worth the effort. We believe we would have struggled to obtain any form of grant support under those terms but we are confident we can if we are able to present ourselves as building owners, ready and willing to roll our sleeves up. Please support us if you can. We don’t want to take over the world. We are unashamedly a men’s mental and physical health charity who just want a safe, warm space where local people can gather, craft, engineer or build in safety. Above all else they can talk. This is our catchphrase. Men don’t talk face to face, they talk shoulder to shoulder. ...
We were delighted a few days ago to receive this glowing endorsement of our bid to take over Hay Lodge Depot as our new home using Community Asset Transfer provisions. We are so grateful to our two elected representatives for their support. You can possibly imagine then how deflated we now feel having just been told that Scottish Borders Council and Peebles Common Good Committee will be unable to complete their deliberations on our proposed terms of transfer by the previously stipulated date of 24 December, which was six months from the start of the process. We have now been asked to agree to a new completion date for the process, which may not even be in our favour, of 31 March 2027. Quite honestly, words fail me. ...
We have been busy in Innerleithen this week with an unusual request from St Ronan’s residential home. Not every week we get asked for some cut out dinosaurs but we are up for most things ( who said we are a bunch of dinosaurs ourselves). Watch this space for more pictures once they are painted up to look a bit better and in place. Great job by our Treasurer Steve. ...
Had a disappointing morning today. Had hoped to paint the benches outside Mercer Court in Innerleithen but they were covered in frost. Retreated to the Shed instead and continued working on restoring their two previously rusty and rotten benches. This was possible thanks to a micro grant from Innerleithen Community Council from their Bowbeat Wind Farm Community Fund. They are coming along nicely, repainted in Innerleithen blue and new oiled hardwood slats fitted. The benches we couldn’t paint today are also going to be the same shade of blue. Hoping for better weather soon. ...
We will hold our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 29 September 2026 at 11.00am within the Shed at School Brae, Peebles.
A separate formal notice has been sent to those Members we hold email addresses for. If you have recently changed email address or do not receive email notifications from us please let us know what your details are so we can keep in touch.
An announcement will also be made in the Peeblesshire News. ...
We are still working through the processes connected to our application for Community Asset Transfer of Hay Lodge Depot. We already know that some fairly substantial repairs to the building will need done. @There are approximately 15 ceiling joists that need replaced and both kitchen and toilet facilities need to be installed. We have been told by SBC that we have to obtain quotations for this work before our application can proceed. We will be liable for the cost of these repairs if we are successful. We would like to hear from local builders and joiners who may be interested in providing quotes for us. The likely value of the contract will be in the region of £30,000. The photo below shows some of the existing joists which have either been historically shortened or are compromised by wet rot or beetle infestation. Look forward to an avalanche of offers of help! ...
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May, 2024. A public consultation has been launched by Scottish Borders Council to test the public response to our proposal to obtain a lease over Hay Lodge Depot for use as our new long term home. You voted overwhelmingly for that to happen. Fast forward to today and a second public consultation is now taking place to test the public response to our offer of £1.00 to purchase the building. Why didn’t the first response make things happen you may ask. The answer is simple. The building needs many tens of thousands of pounds spent on it to make it safe and fit for purpose. The building owners, Peebles Common Good Fund were unwilling to sanction any expenditure and we believe the only way forward is for us to raise the funding to turn this into the viable Community Asset it deserves to be. Community Asset Transfer of buildings like this is a legal process, as is the need for the eight week long public consultation we are now two weeks into. We can’t change that, but you can help by adding your name to the growing body of support for this move we already have. Thank you for that support. At the moment it is the only thing that is keeping us going. The consultation can be accessed here, or by calling in to the County Buildings and filling out a paper copy.
...
Hay Lodge Depot, Peebles: Community Asset Transfer Request - Scottish Borders Council - Citizen Space
scotborders.citizenspace.com
Find and participate in consultations run by Scottish Borders Council0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Congratulations to Reuben Singleton who has become our number 1,000 follower on Facebook. As promised a small gift will be delivered to Rueben shortly. We managed to increase our followers from about 970 to 1001 in just a few days. There was a serious point to this. You will hopefully know by now that our plans to take ownership of Hay Lodge Depot are currently being tested by Scottish Borders Council in a public consultation. Having a solid foundation demonstrable by a growing following on social media is another way we can demonstrate to both the Council and to our elected Councillors, who will make the final decision on this matter, that we mean business and that we have the public firmly behind us. We will have a decision by early next year. We remain hopeful of a positive outcome. ...
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Thank you to everyone who has taken the trouble to complete the public consultation running at present regarding our application to take ownership of Hay Lodge Depot. Now we need to work on those of you who haven’t yet done so. The link we posted on Monday will be valid for eight weeks. Sorry to any of you who tried to complete it yesterday when SBC took their website off line for a bit. Final ask. We now have almost 1000 followers on Facebook. Wouldn’t you like to be that person? As a wee incentive there is a nice hand turned dish waiting for you as a gift from us for your continued support. ...
3 CommentsComment on Facebook
Hay Lodge Depot, Peebles: Community Asset Transfer Request - Scottish Borders Council - Citizen Space ...
Hay Lodge Depot, Peebles: Community Asset Transfer Request - Scottish Borders Council - Citizen Space
scotborders.citizenspace.com
Find and participate in consultations run by Scottish Borders Council0 CommentsComment on Facebook
The public consultation regarding our proposal to purchase Hay Lodge Depot for £1.00, and to refurbish it from a cold, damp shell into a vibrant, useful Community Space is now live and can be found using this link. scotborders.citizenspace.com/customer-communities/haylodgedepot/
There are 975 of you out there who have liked our Facebook page, so let’s swamp Scottish Borders Council with positive, supporting comments. Can you also please share this post and link as widely as possible to achieve maximum coverage.
Make no mistake. The results of this survey will make or break our proposal. We are in your hands now.
Thank you. ...
Hay Lodge Depot, Peebles: Community Asset Transfer Request - Scottish Borders Council - Citizen Space
scotborders.citizenspace.com
Find and participate in consultations run by Scottish Borders Council22 CommentsComment on Facebook
On Monday 19 October, a public consultation will be launched by Scottish Borders Council in relation to our bid of £1.00 for Hay Lodge Depot. It will run for eight weeks and a link will be posted. Much will be said about the fact that we aspire to take ownership of a building said to be valued at £85,000 for a peppercorn sum. We want the public to be in possession of the whole picture before they comment on this matter. Firstly, we have already spent around £7,000 of our own funds getting to this point. Various professional surveys and £3,500 safely removing asbestos mentioned below. That, we hope, shows we mean business and is a sum we would much rather have spent on improving facilities for our Members. The building is a largely unheated, damp shell with rotten structural timbers that have been there for many years. Previous authorities hid the problem under asbestos boarding but it didn’t go away. There is no kitchen, no insulation, no damp proof course, inappropriate render on the walls, damaged rainwater guttering adding to the damp issue and only one WC. We have estimates to replace the damaged ceiling joists and upper floor amounting to approximately £20,000. That would allow us to safely occupy the space. The damp ingress solution has been estimated at £30,000. We would guess, but have not yet costed, that the other work needed to make this a functional community space will be many tens of thousands. The reason we find ourselves here now is that SBC and our Common Good Committee spent the last two years trying to get us to sign a ten year lease including taking on responsibility for all of the above whilst steadfastly refusing to spend a penny on making good the structural issues in the building which they still own. Frankly, that process nearly broke us. Constant arguing over irrelevant details, presentation of multiple problems and no solutions, making us feel like we were not worth the effort. We believe we would have struggled to obtain any form of grant support under those terms but we are confident we can if we are able to present ourselves as building owners, ready and willing to roll our sleeves up. Please support us if you can. We don’t want to take over the world. We are unashamedly a men’s mental and physical health charity who just want a safe, warm space where local people can gather, craft, engineer or build in safety. Above all else they can talk. This is our catchphrase. Men don’t talk face to face, they talk shoulder to shoulder. ...
8 CommentsComment on Facebook
We were delighted a few days ago to receive this glowing endorsement of our bid to take over Hay Lodge Depot as our new home using Community Asset Transfer provisions. We are so grateful to our two elected representatives for their support. You can possibly imagine then how deflated we now feel having just been told that Scottish Borders Council and Peebles Common Good Committee will be unable to complete their deliberations on our proposed terms of transfer by the previously stipulated date of 24 December, which was six months from the start of the process. We have now been asked to agree to a new completion date for the process, which may not even be in our favour, of 31 March 2027. Quite honestly, words fail me. ...
5 CommentsComment on Facebook
We have been busy in Innerleithen this week with an unusual request from St Ronan’s residential home. Not every week we get asked for some cut out dinosaurs but we are up for most things ( who said we are a bunch of dinosaurs ourselves). Watch this space for more pictures once they are painted up to look a bit better and in place. Great job by our Treasurer Steve. ...
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
Had a disappointing morning today. Had hoped to paint the benches outside Mercer Court in Innerleithen but they were covered in frost. Retreated to the Shed instead and continued working on restoring their two previously rusty and rotten benches. This was possible thanks to a micro grant from Innerleithen Community Council from their Bowbeat Wind Farm Community Fund. They are coming along nicely, repainted in Innerleithen blue and new oiled hardwood slats fitted. The benches we couldn’t paint today are also going to be the same shade of blue. Hoping for better weather soon. ...
7 CommentsComment on Facebook
We will hold our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 29 September 2026 at 11.00am within the Shed at School Brae, Peebles.
A separate formal notice has been sent to those Members we hold email addresses for. If you have recently changed email address or do not receive email notifications from us please let us know what your details are so we can keep in touch.
An announcement will also be made in the Peeblesshire News. ...
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Doing a bit of work today repairing outdoor benches for Mercer Court sheltered housing in Innerleithen. They know how to keep on our good side. ...
1 CommentsComment on Facebook
We are still working through the processes connected to our application for Community Asset Transfer of Hay Lodge Depot. We already know that some fairly substantial repairs to the building will need done. @There are approximately 15 ceiling joists that need replaced and both kitchen and toilet facilities need to be installed. We have been told by SBC that we have to obtain quotations for this work before our application can proceed. We will be liable for the cost of these repairs if we are successful. We would like to hear from local builders and joiners who may be interested in providing quotes for us. The likely value of the contract will be in the region of £30,000. The photo below shows some of the existing joists which have either been historically shortened or are compromised by wet rot or beetle infestation. Look forward to an avalanche of offers of help! ...
5 CommentsComment on Facebook