Scotland: National Rural Network
As part of our regular Ask an Expert feature, we put your questions to our Village Halls panel of experts - Chrissy Boyd of Ullapool Village Hall, Philippa Wetton of Berwickshire Association for Voluntary Service and Sandra Hogg of the Rural Team at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. Below you'll find their responses to a range of questions on everything from renewables to why village halls are important! If you have anything to add please comment on this article.
You can find out more about the panel in Put your questions to our Village Halls experts.
I am concerned about the way our hall trustees are acting. The last AGM did not have a quorum, there is no provision in the constitution for what action should be taken, or any clause allowing community members to request a Special General Meeting. The chairman takes many decisions without reference to the other trustees or management committee members, no agendas or minutes are circulated and voting on any issue is rare and being by show of hands he is able to make it awkward to go against his wishes. Advice please.
Philippa Wetton says:
Is your group a registered Charity? It is an OSCR (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator) requirement that members and trustees abide to the group's governance documents, and failure to do so would be greatly frowned upon by OSCR and actions would be taken accordingly to address this.
It sounds like the group's constitution could do with updating to reflect some standard clauses now in place to ensure groups' governance documents meet current requirements, legislation and protect the interest of your members. Your local Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) can support you with this for free.
The constitutional changes would only need to be minor, the changes explained at a minuted meeting where their importance can be highlighted, and then signed off by the group Office Bearers. I'm sure your local CVS will help you justify the need for this to the chairman helping make it happen and improve the situation for you in the long term! Best of Luck!
Sandra Hogg adds:
Perhaps some committee or governance training would be helpful too. Most CVS will provide this for free. If you do it as a group then everyone knows how things should be done and the chairman will know that you know!
My question is about training for hall committee members/volunteers. We have a very small 'pool' of only around 100 people in our community to serve on the hall committee, and many of them have done their stint when they were younger (and more enthusiastic!) so we struggle to get enough people for all of the work we want and need to do! I am toying with the idea of encouraging people by providing some kind of training which they would be funded to attend, would be fun to attend, and would allow them to be 'champions' of the community or similar.
Have you come across anything training that you have found particularly useful, and are you aware of any ways to have this funded?
Chrissy Boyd says:
Have you come across any training that you have found particularly useful? Not really - I have tried to encourage committee members to attend training, but - sorry to be such a Jeremiah - they're generally very un-keen to put it politely, and therefore courses have to be cherry picked to very specific needs.
However, your idea is less to do with day-to-day management than finding something which may encourage your small community. What might be fun may also depend on where you are. I notice that both some National Parks and football clubs offer ‘community champions' training' so there's a spread! However, my niece spent many enjoyable weekends whilst at University on British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) weekends. Maybe there are events in your area, or maybe you could persuade the Trust to lay on something locally to do something in the environment? They have local offices and a website.
On a different tack, I was recently funded through our local development trust to visit several village halls to consider sustainability (South of France? No . . . but the funding may have enabled me to go out of the UK!). This wasn't really training, more networking, searching out examples of good practice and ideas, and finding benchmarks to roughly judge ourselves by. This funding wasn't limited to our hall committee - it was available to anyone.
More networking than training but interesting, was the SCVO Village Halls Summit in Aviemore a couple of years ago. And yesterday I was at a funded woodfuel supply chain conference on behalf of our hall, with the offer of a trip to study Finnish forests. Amazing what you get to do on a hall committee!
Are you aware of any ways to have this funded? Your local Council for Voluntary Service may have useful suggestions, and of course there's the Lottery. Our local economic/community development agency (Highlands and Islands Enterprise up here in the Highlands) is certainly worth a call, and if you've a nearby community/development trust, it may be able to suggest and apply for funding on your behalf.
Our village hall has paid itself for any costs involved, but much of the training was free anyway e.g. SCVO (sometimes), and our Council (Highland) are good at offering occasional Health and Safety workshops. The few SCVO ones I've attended have been very good. Another thought for a potential good source of cash for training volunteers is the Voluntary Action Fund.
I also picked the brains of the fundraising expert at my local development trust. She said, "My initial thoughts are to devise a structured training plan for themselves to identify what they need and want and then either look at People's Postcode Trust (if they can do it within a three month period), Awards for All and/or check out the numerous free courses that are available through lots of the intermediary organisations and see what fits. Then they can come up with a good all round proposal for funders. The training plan would need to consider travel and any accommodation costs associated with attending training. The funding for visiting others to learn from them as you do is easier to come by as funders like people to network and stay in touch.
"There may be other options depending on where they are so to give more detailed info it would be useful to know where the group are based and what links they have to any of the intermediary community support organisations like Development Trust Association Scotland or Community Woodlands Association."
I am Treasurer a Hall and I am wondering if there is any help/information/funding available to village halls re the installation of solar panels? I have no knowledge at all of this area.
Sandra Hogg says:
There's loads of information on the internet about solar panels. The difficulty is getting good advice on what's the best system for your hall.
You don't say what type of solar panel you are interested in. There are two basic types:
As you can imagine this is a complicated area. I would suggest the first place you look for information and advice is the Community Energy Scotland (CES) website. Take a look at some of case studies which should give you lots of ideas of what has been done in community buildings. They also have staff that can come out and visit you, look at your building and help you find the most appropriate solution for your needs. CES also administer the CARES grants but unfortunately this has just closed for new applicants. Hopefully it will reopen in the future.
Some other sources of information are:
I understand there is to be an alteration to the funding of renewable energy schemes in particular an alteration to ' Feed in Tarrif' rates and this will mean less support for energy saving or installation of renewable energy gereration .
I contacted Community Energy Scotland (CES) last May asking about the potential for funding insulation and energy generation for the village hall, but received no reply and have just sent them a follow up e-mail and letter.
My questions are:
Sandra Hogg says:
Community Energy Scotland (CES) is a great source of information and advice. It's disappointing that they haven't responded to your original contact but hopefully your follow up will get a satisfactory reply. The CARES funding has closed for new applicants but CES are still best placed to provide the technical advice and information you need.
Forth Valley and Lomond LEADER may be able to provide funding but may not have the technical expertise or information you need. Other potential funders are listed in the reply to the question about solar panels above. Unfortunately it is impossible to give costs for insulation or renewable devices at that depends on your hall and what you decide to install.
The Village Halls website has a recent story on West Carse Hall in Angus which shows how they refurbished their hall with insulation and renewable technologies.
You mentioned Feed In Tariffs (FITs) which have recently been introduced. These provide payment for the electricity you produce through a renewable device such as Solar PV panel, hydro-electric or wind turbine. There is a good overview of FITs on the Community Energy Scotland website and on the FITs website. However, it is unlikely that you will be eligible for both a grant from a public body for installing a generating device and a FIT. More information on this is available on the Department of Energy and Climate Change website.
Is there a standard format for the Fire Risk Assessment, Fire Action Plan and Fire Policy etc, required for village halls and if so where can we obtain a copy to use as a template for our own village hall.
Philippa Wetton says:
There are several places you can look for more information on fire policy, risk assessments and action plans. You can visit the FireLaw website for guidance on your rights and responsibilities, managing fire safety and law enforcement, etc. On this website, you'll find the Fire Safety Guidance Booklet.
Another place to look is the Health and Safety Executive website where you can gain further reading: 5 Steps to Risk Assessment, which is a free guide. The Charities Commission website will also offer guidance helping charities understand and manage their risks.
Sandra Hogg adds:
You could take a look at the Village Halls website page on fire safety too.
We are currently facing a problem with regard to our local village hall. We have a damp problem in one of the small rooms within our hall which we are led to believe is the result of water getting inside the building via the existing chimney stack. We took advice from an Architect and Quantity Surveyor both of whom told our committee that the simplest way to remedy the problem would be by taking down the existing chimney which has been part of the fabric of the building since it was built in 1924.
Unfortunately because we are now in a conservation area we have been told by the local authorities conservation officer that if we dismantle the chimney we would have to construct it again using the original or similar materials. The cost of doing this would be excessive and we do not have the funds to meet the cost of doing this. I wondered whether any other hall committees had encountered a similar problem and if so what solution to the problem was arrived at?
Chrissy Boyd says:
I'm assuming that you want or have to replace the chimney. Off the top of my head: I know that certain national conservation bodies are very strict in their rules and regulations, but I'd get a second opinion. Our hall is also in a conservation area, but generally, as long as external changes (e.g. replacement windows) appear like-for-like, the planning authorities aren't too worried about the materials used. (I'm assuming your hall isn't an A-listed building, which would be a very different matter.) I'd also lobby local Community Councils, Councillors (threaten them with a request for financial help!) or a Ward Manager. (Our local Councillor still has a discretionary fund which we benefitted from last year.) Or use them as a conduit for an appeal against an unwelcome situation.
If all else fails, I guess you'd have to bite the bullet and find the funds. Start a Save Our Chimney appeal, preferably with an end date so people and organisations aren't slow in coming forward with donations or fundraising assistance. Write appeal letters to local and national bodies e.g. local trusts, local infrastructure developments, businesses and national utility companies. As a village hall committee we've also occasionally helped other local organisations which have been temporarily strapped for some reason through donations (mostly in kind), in the hope that the goodwill would be reciprocated another time if needed. Maybe you could appeal to local clubs out of goodwill? We've appealed to hall user groups for one-off projects too. It may be just the right time to try rock music festivals organisers in your area, now that the season is winding up and they're doing their accounts - our local one is very generous with its donations.
Up here, we have a Community (development) Trust which currently is giving a lot of advice and help (in kind) to a local organisation which must raise a substantial sum of money for unexpected repairs. For a village it's a lot of money, but there is a general hope that it can be done. We've also had advice from the Council Technical Services.
I've not mentioned grant aid as we've had no experience of this for repairs. However, I notice that Historic Scotland has funding possibilities. And if they can't help, maybe they know a man who can! The following sites also look useful:
Sandra Hogg adds:
Funding might be available from Rural Priorities which has an option Management and Repair of Vernacular Buildings. However, Rural Priorities has a complicated grant process and you should contact Rural Direct for help on how to proceed.
Our local council recently announced the closure of five halls across the district (criteria being used less than 30 hours a week) or transfer to community management where a group is established or in a strong enough position to achieve this. This includes closure of the Halls in my own village where I am involved in a steering group that is aiming to take on responsibility to run the halls in the new year.
The group have been offered long term lease (99 years) by the local authority, however the group are more keen to take on ownership of the property which would raise the profile of the group in the village, hopefully secure wider support locally and strengthen the groups position securing funding as well as loans (if that was ever needed!) to improve the halls. (An independent survey identified £200k of repairs / upgrades long term though hall is not in structurally unsafe condition.) The lease would only be peppercorn rent and there may be advantages with the local authority owning regarding repairs (this still needs to be negotiated re terms of lease) however this seems to be outweighed if the group secured ownership.
I know in Glasgow several halls were transferred to community ownership securing BIG funding but not sure if you have any suggestions of how to campaign for the council to transfer ownership outright? The council are unwilling - however they do not seem to place great value in the hall if they are planning to close it! If you have any suggestions that would be appreciated.
Sandra Hogg says:
The research carried out in 2008 into rural community facilities found that more than 80 percent of community buildings and halls in Scotland are community owned. So community ownership could be regarded as the norm in rural Scotland. However, every community is different and I would not advocate any particular solution.
There are certainly pros and cons to ownership. The Big Lottery regards community ownership as a benefit. It believes that by having complete control of the asset through ownership rather than leasehold, communities have the power to make the changes that will benefit their community in the long term. Its recently relaunched Growing Community Assets programme will only fund assets that the community owns. However, ownership also brings liabilities and having the security of the council to carry out repairs can be a huge advantage. Just ask any hall committee that is struggling to find funds for roof repairs!
The key point for you is to be guided by your community. If you want the council to transfer ownership outright you will need to show a mandate from your community. You will need to set out the pros and cons, perhaps in an options appraisal. Then hold community meetings to seek views in an open way, use surveys and questionnaires and consult with existing and potential user groups and other stakeholders. If you can show community support for ownership you will be in a better position to lobby the council.
You may also be interested in the work that the Development Trust Association Scotland is undertaking on the transfer of assets to communities. There are links there to the Scottish Government's Community Empowerment Action Plan which promotes the ownership of assets and which might be useful to you.
Many people consider that the hall is an essential part of any village, like the primary school is, like the post office is and look at them being shut, like the shop is, and so on. The question must be just how important the village hall actually is. We have legislation insisting that children attend school yet we are able to close them. We have national guidelines about our postal service yet we are able to close it. We have restricted transport offerings yet we watch petrol stations close, again shops must compete with the behemoth neighbours possibly 30 miles away. Can they avoid closure?
What is ever laid down that states village halls should exist, should offer certain services, should enjoy some protection? Is the village hall simply another creature of the market? Will we watch local halls close one by one? Should that be the accepted pattern especially if village hall services can be amalgamated?
This pattern clearly is not universal yet as among the three experts there is evidence for village halls that do thrive. I sort of know what the answer is - join the committee and get stuck in. But where is the answer that addresses problems seen in so many areas?
Sandra Hogg says:
Unfortunately there is no legislation that states we must have village halls. However, their value is recognised in many rural policy papers and documents and Richard Lochhead the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment said at the Village Halls Summit 2008 "[halls] are increasingly playing a crucial role at a time when, all too often, we face threats to the viability of our rural post offices, rural petrol stations, village libraries and rural schools."
There is no doubt that halls are hugely valued by their communities and act as platforms for community activity, social interaction and service delivery. But halls are not exempt from market forces and reductions in public spending. Hall committees are going to have to keep a tight hold of finances, reduce costs where possible, increase revenue and become more forward looking and businesslike.
Halls also need to be outward looking, letting the local community know what they do, inviting discussion on the services they deliver and finding out what the community really needs. Sometimes there will be a need for halls to work together to meet these needs. Occasionally amalgamation may be the best way forward.
It's a hard, and often thankless, job running a hall so committees need to take advantage of the help available to them. The CVS network are well placed to help locally, the SCVO Village Halls website has lots of helpful information, Rural Direct can help find funding and Federations of Halls can help with networking and local issues.
At the end of the day village halls are not sacrosanct and immune to closure but I believe that with help and community support we can keep them in our rural communities.
Chrissy Boyd says:
How important is a village hall? I believe village halls are very important because they act, in a more flexible and wider way than say post offices, as community focus - a venue which enables events to be spontaneously held, and organisations to develop (sometimes so successfully that they finally leave to go their own way!). After all, you couldn't have the Brownies in a corner shop, but you could run a shop, post office or anything, in a village hall.
What is laid down that village halls should exist, should offer certain services, should enjoy some protection? I do feel that you have to start at the grassroots end. Allowing outside agencies to have an influence on decisions about village halls is not good. Our particular village hall belongs entirely to the community. It's us that should take the responsibility for how it's used, for measuring it's communal value and for delivering it's success - no-one else. I know this is overly simplistic but I feel this, even if strictly it's not the whole story.
Is the village hall simply another creature of the market? Will we watch local halls close one by one? Should that be the accepted pattern especially if village hall services can be amalgamated? Even if you're a charity or a local organisation, like everything else since the '80s you have to take a pragmatic, business view. A financially sound hall offers its own protection. A thriving (independent) hall will find voluntary input easier to recruit and sustain. Locating funding to raise standards can bring in new users. Two of our local halls employ admin staff, which we've found to be cost effective as it enables timely troubleshooting and an improved welcome and experience to potential and new users. And we cross subsidise charges ruthlessly.
Also, we lobby and network. Councils are reducing their commitment to halls generally, but regularly putting a positive case for our hall to our local Councillor has proved useful; we also use our Ward Manager's advice and help from time to time. And networking can bring in new ideas and give you confidence in what you're doing.
Philippa Wetton says:
The key purpose of village halls is to offer support to a community, a way of providing cohesion and harmony, bringing generations together and providing a valued space to develop communities further. Those that thrive tend to be the ones with committed trustees and regular members/loyal users.
Sustainability is often achieved by forward thinking committee members who build on the hall's current usage and look at dynamic, innovative ways to promote and develop its services/bookings further, publicising it widely within the local community and beyond.
There is a strong support network for village halls via SCVO and local CVSs, offering advice and information to help overcome any obstacles, provide cost-saving and regulatory/legislative support, offer links to other village halls, and so on. Go ahead and give it a go! Sign up to your hall committee and find out more about how you can be involved to help ensure your hall remains sustainable over the years ahead!
Join the Network Now!
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Google
StumbleUpon
Technorati
Twitter
