MINUTES OF HULLAVINGTON NEW VILLAGE HALL PROJECT GROUP MEETING

WEDNESDAY 1^st DECEMBER 2004, 8PM

PRESENT: Dave Hunt, Bob Fenner, John Greenwood, Julian Greenman, Peter Parry-Williams, Jenny Gossage, Jebbie Hewitt, William Harmer, Simon Durrant, Victoria Castle, Anne Durrant.

At the beginning of the meeting Bob commented that unless more people were willing to do more work the project would not progress.

1.      New Village Hall Project Business

1.1.  Apologies: Joan Shaw, Paul Hadley, Michael Gossage, Nick Hathaway, John Metters, Maggie Bawden.

1.2.  Minutes of the last meeting held on 9^th November were agreed and signed.

1.3.  Matters arising – there were none

1.4.  PC meeting on 10^th November – At the PC meeting Paul Hadley suggested that the reserves of around £6 - £7K that the PC holds at the moment could be used to pay any loan repayments for the next year until the following year’s Parish precept can be set. This would give us more time to sort out hall specifications and costings. The PC agreed with this and we are now in a much more relaxed situation regarding timescales.

1.5.  Review of quotations –

• Securaccom – Peter reported that the drawings have been changed and he had not yet received the new quotation.
• Terrapin – William had received plans from Terrapin and a favourable revised quotation. With a concrete raft and no cladding the cost would be around £217K. The main hall with no suspended ceiling could be up to 4m high. The rooms surrounding the main hall would have suspended ceilings at around 3m height.
• Frameworks – Simon has received a quotation from Frameworks of £269K for a building that is exactly the dimensions requested.

Bob will make a summary document comparing the 3 quotes.

We will need to place 6 requests for tender to comply with PC regulations.

1.6.  Progress with lease – John Metters has produced a document summarising the latest findings. It appears that the current lease to the PC does not satisfy the conditions of use as set by the Charity Commission (CC). There are 2 ways to progress. Either:

1. The CC can grant an Albemarle Scheme. There are certain conditions that have to be met which include the PCC having free use of the hall and a reasonable rent being paid. There is no guarantee that such an application will be successful, and, if unsuccessful, then the PCC must sell the land on the open market. The time taken for an Albemarle lease to be granted may also be considerable.
2. The land could be sold, the sale being subject to the remaining 16 years of the current lease including all the covenants in the lease. The PCC will need to be advised by a surveyor as to the value of the land and whether it is in the best interests of the PCC to advertise the sale. It is thought that advertising would not be required if the land were to be sold to the PC.

Bob would like, at the next PC meeting, to raise the possibility of the PC buying the land. All agreed.

1.7.  Pre-school – Bob thanked Jebbie for a recent letter explaining Pre-school’s position. It is unsure how long it can stay at the school site, and if it has to move then Grittleton hall would be available but Grittleton are not willing to provide extra storage space unless a time commitment is given. The school site is the preferred option but it may not be feasible to make a permanent arrangement there. The Pre-school committee feels that it has to look at all the possibilities.

1.8.  Outline business case analyses – Bob had prepared 2 analyses (attached) to help inform decision making. Pre-school contributes around 46% to the rental income and are necessary to the hall. With Pre-school present we would need to increase the rental of the new hall by about 18%. However if Pre-school moves elsewhere we need to raise the rental income by about 78%. This sounds like a huge increase, but in reality means that, to regular users, the hall would cost around £4/hour. Bob requested that hall user representatives find out how acceptable this rise would be to the user groups.

1.9.  Landfill Tax Credit grant scheme – Bob will delay registering for this scheme until we know more about the lease situation, so that the ‘cost of the project’ can be estimated. There are no set deadlines for applications.

1.10.                   and 1.11 Outline work flow chart – Bob had prepared a chart (attached) giving rough timescales for the project. In the best case we can expect a hall to be completed around October of next year.

AOB – Bob suggested that early in the New Year a fundraising group be set up, hopefully with new members. Simon suggested that villagers could make pledges. The Star Inn run a regular meat raffle in aid of the hall. There will be carols and punch at Jebbie’s house on December 12^th at 7.30pm, tickets £3 in advance, half the proceeds going to the hall.

The next meeting will be held in the court room of John and Henny’s Court House on Wednesday 15^th December at 8pm

There being no further business the meeting closed at 10pm.