A shrewsbury Scout is in much need of repair and the call has gone out to the community to help.
Copthorne Scout and Guide hut in Shrewsbury serves around 150 children through its doors but the building is in much need of repair. Can you help?
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NewsTranscript
00:00So we're here with Copthorn Scout and Guide Hut and Nicky, this is your project, your baby this
00:06place. It is, well I've inherited it as a division commissioner for Shrewsbury and we've been working
00:12really hard over the summer to try and get this place ship shape. It's had a lot of neglect over
00:18the last few years and it needed a little bit of TLC to bring it up to standard. So we've spent a
00:22lot of time this summer painting and decorating and we're here tonight to have an open house
00:29and to show everybody what we've managed to do so far and hopefully get the local businesses
00:35involved in supporting us and doing all the other jobs that we need to do. Cool, well we've got a
00:41few groups represented, who've we got here then? Who's in the green? Who've we got? My name is
00:47Thomas Dooley and I'm part of the 23rd Shrewsbury Scout Group. Cool and I'm Imogen Burgess and I'm
00:55part of the Guides. So we've got the Guides, we've got Brownies and then who are these little ones?
01:01What are these ones called? Rainbows, cool I like it. So what is it you need to raise a few
01:08a few quid to get it up to scratch don't you? How much do you need to raise Nicky? Well to do the
01:12outside of the whole of the roof because it's such a big hut we're looking at about £35,000
01:18to do that yeah but we've got some smaller projects inside that we need to do including
01:22insulating the roof in here and and doing up our toilet areas and we're really raising money
01:28tonight to get a new fire door. Okay yeah and I guess is it always helpful if anyone wants to
01:36put their hand up and say kind of well we can do the work we can you know tradesmen are happy to
01:41volunteer time and all that? Absolutely and we get a lot of support from our parents and we've got
01:46all sorts of parents we've got all sorts of crafts and skills that they can help and share with us
01:50but sometimes we really need some bigger help for these bigger projects with local business
01:54in the area and that's what we're looking for. And the building it's a few years old isn't it
01:59when was it first built? It's actually 50 years old this year it was built in 1974
02:03yeah so it's our 50th anniversary this year which is another good reason to celebrate. Yeah
02:08totally and how many children do you think you have come in and using the kind of facilities
02:12and what you offer here? Roughly with all the scouting and guiding of all the units together
02:17we reckon we've got 150 children using this facility a week and then we also have a small
02:21play group that use the facility too. So it really is when you're investing in the building
02:26you really are investing in the in the young and the youth here aren't you really? Absolutely
02:30and we're a really rare commodity in the local area there aren't many community
02:34halls like this yeah for local people to use. So who wants to tell me about some of the stuff
02:39you get up to here then? Cool good let's come in what's your name again young lady? Emma Ryder.
02:44Hello Emma. So what sort of stuff happens here then? So I do guides on a Thursday and it's really
02:51fun and we just play loads of games and do so many fun activities. Yeah so it's cool it's a good way
02:56to make new friends I should imagine isn't it? Yes. Cool now you've got you've got sisters here
03:02haven't you? Which one's yours your sister again? That's it you've got one in every category.
03:08So do you girls have fun here? Yeah. Yeah what's your favourite thing that you like to do when you
03:13come here? We play with the toys that stay in the box. Ah you've got a special set of toys yeah
03:22good fun and have you made lots of new friends? Yeah. Oh that's pretty cool what are all these
03:27badges on your top what's going on here do you have to earn those do you have to do different tasks
03:34show me one what's your favourite badge you've got on there then
03:36um wow Christmas badge I like that that's pretty cool
03:46your drawing badge so did you have to do some very good drawing to work to earn it yeah
03:52what did you draw can you remember right so brownies what about you young lady what's some
04:00of the stuff you you've been up to here that you've enjoyed we do loads of fun activities
04:04and games yeah that's cool oh we've got another scout joined us hello up there
04:11and somebody tells me you go over the woods as well is that right who goes over the woods is
04:15that scouts yeah cool so what sort of stuff are you getting up to over there is that bushcrafting
04:19it's a lot of the time we're building shelters yeah and um we make like ropes to pull things
04:25up on top of the trees that sounds like good fun lots of pioneering with the ropes pioneering
04:32sticks and ropes and we learn knots yeah and different tools to help us with that
04:40that's good fun isn't it yeah it's good where's the woods then Nikki is it is it just at the back
04:44here or literally just next yeah yes we've got access to a play area woods and we've got lots
04:48of time outdoors as well as inside so that's a it's a great location for this building to be in
04:54then isn't it by the sounds of it yes and there's there's a lot of the local community we've got
04:58two primary schools that we draw from here and the wider community as well is there anybody else
05:03who wants to say anything about something they've done they've enjoyed go on go on mrs brownie go on
05:11i like collecting badges ah well you've got one or two there haven't you so which is the one you're
05:17most proud of of earning there so what's brownie gold so what did you have to do to get brownie
05:22gold then get um all your theme awards ah so it's like it's just a marker that you've done all the
05:29tasks yeah and completed a lot well done i bet that takes a while to get doesn't it hard work
05:34but good fun right well thank you for inviting us down to look at your um your building here
05:39and happy 50th to it but yeah it needs um like all of us when we get to 50 it needs a
05:43a bit of a gentle touch right thank you guys Nikki this um this building the structure of it it's
05:50literally just breeze block and that's it isn't it absolutely we're breeze block with a flat roof
05:54and it's the worst combination ever for damp yeah yeah so you've had problems with mold and stuff
06:00like that i mean you've recently done what you can here you've had somebody um who helped with
06:05the roof that was just a kind of a patch-up job wasn't it really yeah it was we we had a local
06:10some help from a local roofer working on the local housing um and they managed to patch the roof so
06:14we are at least now watertight which means which is why we've spent so much time this summer
06:19working on all the inside of the building and making that ship shape yeah we've worked on the
06:23outside too and we've painted the whole of the building on the outside um so there's only so
06:29much you can do with goodwill and you know it does come down in the end to when it needs money
06:33spending on it doesn't it i mean if you take us around the corner we can see you've got
06:37you've got windows that are cracked and so on we have and things like this all need replacing
06:42bit by bit but we don't have a lot of money to spend yeah so we're we're having events to try
06:48and raise this money um and we're we're looking out for sponsorship and anything that we can do
06:55um having the events in the hut to raise the money so that we can replace things like this
06:59so this is a you've got your garages here but there's there's quite a lot of damper that you're
07:03getting in here is that right absolutely and the garages are so damp now the roof is leaking so
07:07there's nothing there's nothing really stored in there anymore it's a waste of space but we've got
07:11a lot of problems with the actual brick work on the wall and the masonry yeah so we need to get
07:16these fixed um we've got a sloping roof here which and the water pools without coming out of
07:21the drain and we can see where you've done your best but there was a point where you ran out of
07:25paint so that's kind of what the the old building looked very much like that with the paint peeling
07:30off all over yeah indeed it looked just like that we've changed the color slightly so it's much
07:34brighter yeah but we've still got some work to do so do you guys go camping and stuff like that
07:42yes i remember once we went to bodezer which was really fun it was like this indoor we stayed
07:48indoor in this sort of church and it was just so much fun because we did all these activities
07:54what sort of activities were you up to i think we did like some crafts we played loads of games like
07:59tag and other things like that yeah and um so you put tents up as well well that comes
08:06obviously when we're in the camping in the woods which is a place called bickley coppice we had
08:10several tents there and we put some tents and also bivvies which are basically where you tie
08:15ropes around a tree and connect a tarp over it they're really fun to stay in that's cool um but
08:22when any campfires i like a good campfire of course there's campfires you can't have a scout
08:26camp without of course you can't and which we obviously sing around the campfires obviously
08:32talk about things then we also can cook on the campfires yeah so we make um egg sandwiches and
08:37porridge and all sorts of things sounds good and uh what sort of activity have you got up to
08:42any kind of like climbing or that kind of stuff archery even no we tend to just um stick with
08:49like the woody areas yeah so we're obviously exploring in the woods when shelters and making
08:54loads of things out of sticks cool what about you any any climbing or archery any of that kind
08:59we go on loads of activities like we've done archery ziplining we've done climbing we just do
09:05all sorts it's not just indoors yeah crafts we do loads that sounds like great fun cheers guys
09:12so this is the fire door is it indeed so the event we've got this evening is to raise the money
09:17to replace this unit because this is just a patio door at the moment and what we want is
09:21a proper steel fire door there to make the building secure but also um as a fire exit
09:27for the children so if any companies that deal in the world of fire doors their input would be
09:33welcome absolutely yes it's not just we can we can pick up things free from round and about but
09:39it's having the manpower yeah a lovely space at the side of the building we can see it just there
09:46and there curves around the back which is very useful but you are responsible for all these
09:51trees and bushes absolutely we need to maintain the grass area we use this area a lot with the
09:57girls during the summer outside we've got all these trees and bushes that we need to maintain
10:02and you know we get some help from local people and some families and that and we quite often take
10:08our brownies out and do a bit of trimming yeah and there's a there's a potential issue with a
10:13tree that we think might be dead or dying so any any tree surgeons watching this likewise get in
10:18touch absolutely yes please just in a toilet block here and i'm already seeing the mold on the door
10:24and yeah on the roof up here yeah so what's happening in here well we've had a problem
10:29with the roof here we have a leak which is now sealed but um we're in the we're in the process
10:34of looking to redo the roof here yeah get new plaster boards and get this looking stick and
10:39span again like it should be ah yeah you can see where you have to you have to close this one off
10:45yeah it's literally fortunately we've got two toilets so we've still got the other yeah
10:50and the door's all coming away at the bottom there isn't it so we've got plans we've got plans of
10:55to fix all this yeah yeah that's all right so should we go into the hall as well just like
11:03so it's a big space so it's a big space isn't it in here really a lot of room we have got a lot
11:19of room um it's a good space and it could be it could be used to a bigger potential if it had
11:24more users we would be self-sufficient if people were to hire it and that's helped towards paying
11:29all the bills for the ceiling here you've got plans for this as well just fill us in on what
11:33you want to do absolutely i mean ideally when here we'd like to insulate the ceiling between
11:38these choices put a full plasterboard ceiling get rid of the fluorescent strip lights that we've got
11:43and have down lighters and that would save all the hassle with when we've got children playing
11:46with beanbags and balls and things inside the home and you're looking at 12 to 13 000 roughly
11:52you've been quoted for that job yeah so we've got some big projects and some little projects but
11:56there's plenty of work still ongoing yeah
12:07and nikki what's the what's the deal with the brewer's sign yeah well brewers decorators um
12:12gave us a grant earlier this year of uh up to 500 per pound's worth of products okay that started
12:19the ball rolling really because we were able to get all the products and the paint and the
12:22decorative materials that we needed to get the ball rolling and of course the summer time is
12:26the best time to do it because um all the girls are out for the summer and our units don't meet
12:32so we work really hard this summer and it was thanks to them in the first place that
12:36we've actually got the ball rolling