CRICHTON BRIEFING: 1 DECEMBER UPDATE
On Tuesday 1 December, Gwilym Gibbons, Chief Executive of The Crichton Trust hosted his monthly update meeting on Zoom.
Gwilym welcomed everyone to the meeting at 4pm.
Key Updates:
Outdoor Space: As our activities remain restricted by the coronavirus pandemic, we are pleased to see tenants and visitors still making the most of our outdoor space. It was a fantastic Autumn and although there is less colour and it’s a bit colder now, the estate is still looking beautiful and here to be enjoyed.
FACTS: With Covid-19 cases on the rise again, we continue to review our procedures and minimise risks for our colleagues, tenants and visitors at The Crichton. We would just remind everyone to comply with the FACTS (Face Coverings / Avoid Crowds / Clean hands / Two metres / Self isolate and Test) to keep everyone as safe as possible. The Crichton Trust has purchased a new fogging machine to safely and quickly sanitise buildings and spaces as a precautionary measure when required.
Events and Initiatives:
Easterbrook Hall: Easterbrook Hall remains closed to the public until the end of March 2021. Although we have experienced some cancellations for Spring/Summer 2021, we are starting to see the diary filling up for Autumn/Winter 2021 and news of a potential vaccination, seems to have generated new enquiries. Members of our venues team are still available to take calls and deal with any event related enquiries.
Outdoor Events: We are slowly starting to see a return of outdoor events, including the recent announcement to hold a Christmas Spectacular Drive-in Event in the Easterbrook Hall Car Park on the 12th, 13th and 19th December. See our website for details. The car park will be closed on these days and during set-up, but there are plenty of alternative parking spaces on site. (Update: More dates added – see Drive-in blog post for details)
The Doonhame Festival: The second Doonhame Festival will take place at The Crichton in July 2021 with a great line-up including The Kaiser Chiefs. All relevant safety measures will be in place and we will keep tenants and partners up to date with set-up arrangements nearer the time. The small, family-friendly festival gives us all something to look forward to in the summer of 2021.
Royal Burgh of Dumfries Tattoo: The Tattoo committee have made the difficult decision to postpone the event until 30 April 2022. Anyone with an existing ticket, has until the end of December 2020 to contact the Midsteeple Box Office to refund or exchange their ticket(s) for 2022. See our website for details,
Easterbrook Bistro: The Bistro will now be open 7 days, 10am to 4pm and is attracting a steady trade. The festive menu is now available through to the 23 December and although we can’t have parties and large groups, we can welcome up to 6 people from 2 households based on the current rules. The Bistro will close at 4pm on 23 December and reopen on 7 January 2021.
Awards: It’s been a great month for The Crichton Trust in terms of awards. We were delighted to claim the Best Social Enterprise Award at the DGChamber Business Awards earlier in the month and we were also prod to be finalists in two categories of the national Investors in People Awards last week.
18 Month Plan: The Crichton Trust is in the process of producing a Crichton Manifesto to outline an 18th month plan for The Crichton. This will include new projects and initiatives that will be rolled out over the next five years. The Crichton Trust will remain focussed on protecting the wellbeing of people, place and partners (everyone who has a stake in The Crichton including tenants, colleagues and other organisations who work closely with The Crichton). This new strategic plan will be published by the end of the year/early next year once it has been finally approved by The Board. We will share it with you in the new year.
Crichton Central: Work is progressing well in Crichton Central and, pending Covid-19 restrictions, will open in a phased way from February 2021, with a formal launch likely to be in the Spring. We will see a big difference when the windows go in prior to Christmas.
Thank you, stay safe and stay well.
Q&A: No questions.
Future Meetings:
- The Crichton Briefings take continue to take place on the first Tuesday of every month at 4pm on Zoom in 2021, although we will confirm plans for the January meeting asap as it may need to be delayed slightly due to the holidays. To join future meetings use the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83876523626
- A separate meeting for Tenants also takes place on the last Wednesday of every month on Zoom. Details have been circulated to tenants or can be obtained by contacting The Crichton Trust. There is also an opportunity for tenants to share information about their business with other tenants at these meetings, so please let us know if you would like to be included in the programme. Next meeting: 27 January at 11am.
Thank you to everyone who continues to join our meetings.
#TheCrichton #TheCrichtonCommunity #Aplacetobreathe #BuildBackBetter
