Estimated cost is £300,000.

Heritage Lottery Fund is one possibility that is being investigated but in order to apply for a Grant, the work to repair the Pillar would need to encompass the heritage of the surrounding area such as the Iron Age Hill Fort.

The Trustees feel that if the Constitution of the Charity was changed slightly to read: ‘ Aim is to repair Rodney’s Pillar and enhance the visitor experience to the surrounding area’ then this would enable the Charity to apply for funding from the Heritage Lottery.

The A.G.M has been agreed as Monday 18th August at 7.30 p.m in the Old School House, Llandysilio when the proposed change will be voted upon.

Your help and support is still needed to see this Project through so please come to the A.G.M.

Details of the tender can be found below:

View Notice – Sell2Wales (gov.wales)

Copies of the Chairman’s Report and our Year End Accounts, along with the voting results can be found in the downloads section of our website.

Save Rodney’s Pillar is pleased that the work of the Charity raised the profile of the state of the Pillar and brought it to the attention of NRW. The Trustees look forward to working with both NRW and Cadw (the Welsh Government’s historic environment service) until the repairs to the Pillar are completed.

If all goes well, remedial work will begin in Summer 2022 and is estimated to take around four months.

There are more details to be discussed and once agreed they will be communicated out to everyone. In the meantime, the Trustees consider that as NRW will be paying for the repair work, fundraising for the Charity should now cease.

The Trustees are grateful to all individuals and organisations that have supported our work and hope that your interest will continue until the work has been completed. We will continue to issue updates but if you have any immediate queries, please message us.

Copies of the Chariman’s Report and our Year End Accounts, along with the voting results can be found in the downloads section of our website.

(more to follow …)

The constitution allows for Trustee meetings to take place online and we are going to hold the AGM on Zoom.  The meeting will be open for members to view the proceedings but you will not be able to participate in the meeting itself.

The main business of an AGM is to receive and approve the Trustees’ report, to approve the accounts and to vote for the appointment of trustees and an auditor.  We have sourced an online voting system that will enable voting to take place remotely ahead of the AGM with the results announced at the meeting on 9 February.  We will also be inviting questions from members ahead of the AGM which the Trustees will aim to answer at the Zoom meeting once the official business has been completed.

The Trustees believe that while this may not be ideal it does fulfil the Charity’s requirement to hold an AGM, conforms to the current constitution and allows all members to vote on the resolutions and raise any questions they may have.

The formal Notice of Meeting will be issued to members on or before 25 January.  This will include the Trustees’ report and accounts plus details of the resolutions.  This email will include details of how to join the Zoom meeting on 9 February and how to ask a question to the Trustees.  At the same time you information will be issued on how to register your vote(s) which will be live from 25 January to 2 February.

As this is our first AGM all the Trustees are required to stand down but may offer themselves for re-election.  Two of the original eight Trustees will not be standing again and we are looking for two (or more! – the constitution allows for up to 12 Trustees) members to fill the gap. 

If you would like to find out more about what is involved in being a Trustee the Charity Commission has some useful guidance online at https://gov.uk/guidance/charity-trustee-whats-involved.  If you then want to find out more, including a copy of Save Rodney’s Pillar’s constitution, please send an email to members@rodneyspillar.org.uk.

The Welsh lockdown that started on 20 December has meant that the planned face ­to-­face collections at Rodney’s Pillar car park over the Christmas and New Year period had to be cancelled.  The permissive footpath is currently closed but we were able to produce some permanent signs and place them in the car park and at the pillar before the lockdown took effect.  Two further signs have been placed in Llandrinio and we intend putting one at the public footpath starting in Middletown Hill.

These have a QR code which provides a link via smartphones directly to our JustGiving page so that contactless donations can be made while people are out taking their permitted exercise.  For those staying indoors you can still donate via our website http://saverodneyspillar.org.uk/ and if you shop with Amazon please click on Amazon Smile and choose Save Rodney’s Pillar  which will receive 0.5% of eligible purchases at no cost to you.

The Trustees thank you for your continued support for our Charity and hope that you, your families, friends and colleagues are all well and continue to remain safe.

The Trustees decided to cancel their planning meeting in March, however groups will continue to work on marketing, fund raising, technical issues, grant applications and liaison with statutory bodies, remaining in contact via email.

Regretfully any fundraising requiring face-to-face involvement or group activities have had to be put on hold.  There is, however, some very good news!

Our bank account has now been set up and we are now able to accept donations either by cheque or online via JustGiving – full details are on our Support Us page http://saverodneyspillar.org.uk/supportus/ .  We are in the process of being registered for Gift Aid which will add 25% to the amount of any eligible donation.  Details of how to add Gift Aid are also on the Support Us page.

We are still looking for volunteers to help with each of our five activities – there will be plenty that can be achieved using phone or email contact.  If you can help with:

Marketing & Social Media: email Steve Williams at marketing@saverodneyspillar.org.uk

Fund Raising:  email Heather Hobman at fundraising@saverodneyspillar.org.uk

Technical:  email Richard Hambleton at technical@saverodneyspillar.org.uk

Grant applications: email the grants team of Bill Lee, David Roberts and Richard Hambleton at grants@saverodneyspillar.org.uk

Liaison with Statutory Bodies: email the liaison team of David Roberts, Bill Lee and Richard Hambleton at statutory@saverodneyspillar.org.uk

Thank you for your continued support for our Charity.

Since the meeting we have set up separate email addresses for the main areas where we need support; each group will be headed by one or more of the Trustees.

Marketing & Social Media: this includes raising general awareness of the charity, publicising/promoting charity events and publishing charity news updates, via all possible media and will be headed by Steve Williams.

All offers of help should be sent to marketing@saverodneyspillar.org.uk

Fund Raising:  this will include everything apart from grant applications and will be headed by Heather Hobman

All offers of help should be sent to fundraising@saverodneyspillar.org.uk

Technical: this covers the proposed restoration work on the pillar and will be headed by Richard Hambleton

All offers of help should be sent to technical@saverodneyspillar.org.uk

Grant applications:  this includes sourcing potential grant funding and putting together application documents and will be headed by Bill Lee, David Roberts and Richard Hambleton

All offers of help should be sent to grants@saverodneyspillar.org.uk

Liaison with Statutory Bodies:  this includes contact with organisations such as Powys & Shropshire County Councils and CADW  and will be headed by David Roberts, Bill Lee and Richard Hambleton

All offers of help should be sent to statutory@saverodneyspillar.org.uk