A community project to buy a Victorian corrugated cottage meeting room in North Pembrokeshire gains £4,000 in support in one week.
Following a public meeting, the community assets group in the village of Boncath is looking for investors near and far to help safeguard the community cottage that has been used by the community for over 130 years.
The corrugated building has been used for different purposes over the decades, and since the 1930’s has been the meeting place for the Boncath WI. Previously, the building was used as an office for a sawmill, and people have also come forward to say it was initially owned by the local mansion house to collect rents from the houses owned by the local estate.
The public meeting has a presentation from Cris Tomos of the community development association called PLANED of Narberth. Cris explained that as a community purchase, there are incentives of tax relief of 50% back to investors under the HMRC scheme called the Seed Enterprise Investment scheme.
Cris explained, “Following the public meeting in the village hall is was agreed to put a target date of the 31st of March 2026 to reach the goal of raising the £12,000 to buy the building. This would include the £10,000 purchase price plus £2,000 for legal and marketing costs,” Cris added. “it is great to report that after just one week we have seen £4,000 raised, which is one third of the target, but we now have a limited time to raise the remaining £8,000 by the end of March”
People are being asked if they could support with a £500 investment, and that those who are UK taxpayers would be eligible for the 50% tax relief. Such a tax incentive scheme was recently successful as the community bought the Crymych Arms pub in the village of Crymych, just 4 miles away and the community investors there raised £210,000 to reopen the community pub and get the tax relief.
Anyone who is interested can email bwythynboncath@gmail.com or download the investment form on the Facebook page Bwthyn Boncath. Alternatively, people can send a bank BACS payment to the “Community Assets Fund” Sort Code 30-91-65 Account Number 00806593.
Printed investment forms can be picked up from Boncath Village Shop and Post Office and then returned to the post office for adding to the community total of investment received to date. See the photo of the villagers promoting the community cottage purchase scheme
Once purchased, there will be a further community share offer at £50 per share to ensure as many people as possible can have an ownership stake in the historic corrugated iron cottage.