Did you know 9th St Albans Scouts has been running for over 100 years? Our six sections – two each of beavers, cubs and scouts are all run by volunteers, and the small subscription fees we charge cover required insurance, running costs, and funding equipment and activities for our young members. Our scout hut and grounds are also used by Explorer Scouts, and are available for hire and are used by others in our local community.
We usually just about break-even although in 2025, we made a slight loss. We are now reaching the point where our main facility on Lemsford Road is in need of some TLC – something that goes beyond what we can ask our volunteer helpers to do on maintenance weekends (although we will continue to run these really important activities as they’ve helped us absolutely transform the outside space which made a real difference to activities we ran in 2025).
Our vision is to ensure the facilities are fit for purpose to enable another 100 years of scouting at 9th St Albans
In order to achieve this vision, we are laying out a range of improvements which we believe will be essential to ensure the facilities can still be used, broken down into Outside (the drive and garden space surrounding the main building), The Hut (the main building itself), and The lean-to (an extension to the main building which currently has our toilet and storage facilities).
Before we get going on what we need to achieve, please consider what you might be able to do to help us. The funding we’ll need goes well beyond what we could achieve through things like a sponsored litter pick (we do these for free anyway!) or a beetle drive (remember those?!). We are very likely to need to raise funds through grants and would be particularly interested in anyone who could help us with this. Some companies fund activities such as these through things like Community Funding initiatives. Or there could be local companies who would be kind enough to help us in areas they already specialise in (we had a local carpenter and gardening company both make significant contributions aligned with their capabilities to help us in 2025). If you are aware of sources of funding, or feel you could help with this please contact us at fundraising@9thstalbans.org.uk.
Outside – est. £45K – 50K
Following significant volunteer efforts in 2024 and 2025, we have opened up the space, cleared branches and overgrown areas, cut back hedges and ivy, and completed basic renovations to the fire pit and raised fire / barbecue areas – all of these have already significantly benefitted our scouting activities and our young members. There are some more significant areas that we now need to fund:
- The Driveway and Hut Drainage. You may have noticed the drive is somewhat muddy, slippery, uneven, and generally wet and overgrown. This is despite clearing it and maintaining it. Put simply, the drive is over 50 years old, badly worn out, and the hut roofs drain straight onto it, instead of into a soakaway. We need to raise funds to install proper drainage for the hut roof, get the water away from the building, and to re-surface the drive. In its current state we can’t use this space for activities (uneven, slippy etc), and it is very difficult indeed to keep usable even for access and parking.
- The Perimeter Fence (and retaining wall). Our Fence is also old, and in sections broken away. The perimeter hedge has been smothered by ivy and has died, and the true extent of the problem isn’t yet fully visible. Maintenance of the perimeter is both a legal requirement, and also – especially for our younger sections, important for safety. In 2026 we are hoping our volunteers can clear the dead or dying hedges ready for a new fence, but we will need to find funding to cover the installation of a new fence. Additionally towards the bottom of the garden, the scouts garden is approx 2-3ft higher than our neighbour. We’re not entirely sure how or why, but there isn’t adequate fencing or retaining walls at the back. We need to install a retaining wall, before re-fencing to properly maintain this boundary including for safety reasons.
- The Garage Roofs. We have 2 concrete garage buildings used to store the group trailer (used for carrying equipment to camps) and for storing other equipment. They’re really important as the hut itself has very limited storage. The roofs on both are broken, we have significant leaks, and we can’t store anything in these buildings that needs to stay dry. This is a 2026 priority, we have asked for a refreshed quote for the work, and have applied for a grant which we hope we will receive. If we are unsuccessful with a grant we will need to fund this from our limited reserves as we must ensure these buildings remain functional.
The Hut – est. £30K
Our Volunteers put a very significant effort into maintaining the hut themselves. This includes a recent new windows, new kitchen refit, new boiler and subsequent repairs, re-painting through volunteer led activities (work charity days – is this something you could also help with, many companies have these?), lighting installations etc. However, there are a few areas where the main hut space needs some additional help:
- External Wall repointing. The outside wall of the end of our hut is subsiding. This is limited to the outer layer of bricks on a section that was previously an entrance – so has not structural implications – but we obviously need to get this dealt with. It is exacerbated by lack of proper drainage and water pools by this part of the wall.
- Insulation. It’s 2026, the cost of heating is high, and so we run it as little as possible. The hut seems to have a specialised capability of being a few degrees whatever the outside temperature is, and the lack of insulation is part of this problem. We would like to get the roof and walls insulated to help us keep the space warmer, to reduce damp within the building, and to keep heating bills down.
- Sound Dampening. Whilst this is unlikely to be a new problem, the hard internal surfaces of the hut inc the apex roof, creates a space that amplifies any sound within its walls. This tends to make activities noisy, and we’ve had instances of some children finding this difficult, and wearing earmuffs, and some leaders also struggling esp during very ‘active’ sessions. We think adding some dampening to the inside space could have the joint benefit of making the space more accessible – especially to neurodiverse children and leaders who may find the acoustics difficult, plus if done well, could improve the internal aesthetics and make the space more appealing for other community activities.
The lean-to – est. £50-70K
This part of the building is especially important as it contains the toilets. It is not insulated or directly heated, is very cold in winter, and needs more significant work than the main building itself. Within the boys toilet, and original chimney stack from the main hut building blocks part of the cubicle, making access and use difficult, especially for adults. The floors are not level with the main hut floor, which makes disabled access more difficult. Whilst these spaces are maintained, cleaned, and are usable, longer term the lean-to would benefit from a complete renovation or even replacement in order to modernise and address the current problems.
Given the potential cost of this, and other priorities for 2026, our intention for now is to continue to maintain the lean-to, but with the ambition of updating it when some of the more pressing issues have been dealt with. We would need more help and experience in fundraising to properly address this part of the premises.