190 BR. J. ENT. NAT. HIST., 6: 1993 



architect and Val Workman, who had now decided that a larger display area was 

 necessary; the size of the Society's portion had been increased in proportion. We 

 had to advise Bob Rigby of the need to keep to 1000 square feet for our area but 

 we agreed that 300 square feet could be allowed for the display area. 



Having decided that a building could be afforded, the Society's council then 

 proceeded to consult members. After much deliberation, the form that the consultation 

 should take was agreed and Colin Plant's letter to members resulted in the gathering 

 of a diversity of views during August. This produced a surprisingly positive result 

 considering the strong opposition from some quarters, subsequently voiced at the 

 annual general meeting in February 1991. Many members, of course, had some 

 reservations, the security of the building being the greatest concern and this had always 

 been a priority in discussions with the architect. The decision was thus made in 

 September 1990 to investigate the option further. 



The architect was asked to produce revised options which were closer to our 

 preferred budget; these were also submitted to Val Workman, who had been told 

 that the project had been provisionally approved by us. She had, however, been 

 concerned at the time we were taking to come to a decision. I was now informed 

 that 400 square feet was the minimum area for their purposes and other organizations 

 were interested in the site, so a more definite commitment from us was required. 

 However, a compromise was reached and we agreed on 360 square feet for the display 

 area; it was also by now apparent that high interest rates were rapidly increasing our 

 funds. At that time our member John Phillips offered his expertise at assessing the 

 architect's detailed costings and his assistance was invaluable. 



Further discussions with the local authority hinged largely on the length of lease 

 and its detailed terms. We asked Bond Pearce of Plymouth to act as our solicitors 

 and it fell on Mark Swallow of that company to carry out the negotiations on our 

 behalf. Then a change in country park manager intervened. Val Workman left in 

 January 1991 and she was not replaced until Diane Menzies came in April. 



Val's imminent departure had evidently led to consideration of the project by 

 the local authority reaching a temporary halt. I approached them to progress the 

 matter and a meeting was arranged with Rod Calder and the property manager 

 Marc Sartorio. This took place at the district council offices on 20th February 1991. 

 On arrival at these offices, I was surprised to find a drawing of the barn we 

 proposed to demolish on display in the reception area of the leisure department. 

 We had already ascertained that the barn was not a listed building and it later 

 transpired that only half of the barn was to go and the remaining span still overlooks 

 our building. 



The proposals about the terms of the lease were discussed in some detail. Although 

 leases of 25 to 40 years were usually offered for local authority buildings, they had 

 concluded on 60 years being possible in this case, as being the likely "life of the 

 building" although our architect had confidently predicted "hundreds of years". We 

 wanted at least 100 years but it soom became clear that 70 was the maximum we 

 could expect and this was later agreed. Provisional terms were then received in writing 

 in May 1991 and following extensive debate we requested many changes in detail; 

 most of our concerns were accepted by the local authority and changes were made. 

 The draft lease was then drawn up by the local authority solicitor Mr Dodge, 

 and passed to our solicitor for consideration. He then produced a detailed report, 

 highlighting changes that would be desirable. Then, following our instructions, he 

 entered into a lengthy correspondence with Mr Dodge, which brought about a good 

 number of changes beneficial to the Society. This process continued throughout the 

 rest of 1991. 



