Last night District councilors had a Policy Panel meeting at Ebley Mill to look at Stroud's "Village Hall and Community Buildings Scheme" - this is a grants programme which allocates about £100,000 per year to help halls refurbish.
Only a handful of councilors attended - disappointing as village halls are the heart of many communities - indeed we should not underestimate their social worth - I applaud the Councils support for these buildings which has led to matched funding coming from many other bodies - indeed SDC has spent £400,000 and this has helped village hall committees pull in matched funds of £2.5 million.
Whitminster and Oakridge village halls were sited as successful schemes - 23 halls have so far received help. A picture of Whiteshill Village Hall during the recent floods was used in the presentation to illustrate the importance of village halls in other community activities like the emergency distribution of water. They haven't received a grant as the hall is in pretty good shape - however Randwick Village Hall are currently in discussions with SDC over a possible grant.
One discussion during the evening was whether SDC should continue funds for refurbishing halls - no one voted against that, a couple wanted more info but the other three (including myself) fully supported the scheme - 2 of those had had money already from the scheme so no advantage to them voting in favour. Clearly this will go through proper channels for a formal vote but I hope the administration continues this support.
It is vital to my mind that halls are pleasant and comfortable places to be - we've all been in halls where are feet freeze and heads burn from overhead heaters - halls that fail loose community groups and revenue - and could end up closing.
I did raise issues of energy efficiency - there is already a scheme - Community Hall Energy Efficiency and Renewables Scheme (CHEERS ) - that aims to give advice and support re this - to me this is a crucial issue - many halls are expensive on energy use and with oil prices forecast to potentially double we need to tackle this - and of course climate change - SDC is committed to tackling this area but I consider that grants should be conditional on insuring the highest efficiency standards.
Another issue raised was about how many village halls are struggling - committees are getting older with no new blood - a village hall network is being set up to help re this - maybe halls could share treasurers or come to other joint solutions?
One point was made that many Parishes only had a revenue of a few thousand pounds so are in a difficult position to start helping village hall committees - worse still they often proudly declared no rise in their precept on the Council tax - while others spend their money on local projects that benefit the community - to me that is how it should be spent.
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