MINUTES OF HULLAVINGTON NEW VILLAGE HALL PROJECT GROUP MEETING
PRESENT: Dave Hunt, Bob Fenner, John Greenwood, Julian Greenman, Peter and Liz Parry-Williams, Jebbie Hewitt, William Harmer, Paul Hadley, John Metters, Anne Durrant, Evelyn Lewis and Isobel Acott (representing WI), Victoria Castle, David Hanks, Neil Hamilton.
1. New Village Hall Project Business
1.1. Apologies: Graham Stokes, Maggie Bawden.
1.2. Minutes of the last meeting held on 24th January 2005 in 1.4 the second paragraph should read: If we were to build on the present site, using the remaining 16 years left on the present lease and an Albemarle lease was not granted, then the Bristol Diocese would be obliged to sell the land The minutes were corrected and signed.
1.3. Matters arising 1.7 Bob has not yet had time to put anything on the village website.
1.4. Update on lease The surveyor, working for the PCC has now produced a draft report. In it he recommends the terms for a lease as:- a ground rent of £1500 pa reduced to £1250 pa because of the free usage of the hall by the PCC. This would be indexed annually by the RPI. A lease of 35 years (the maximum normally allowed by the Charities Commission (CC) for a lease granted under an Albermarle Scheme). The 16 years left of the present lease would be merged into the new lease. The PCC would be entitled to the use of the new hall, free of charge, for 10 afternoon sessions, 20 evening sessions and 2 all day sessions per year. Any extra usage would require rent payment. The lease would require that the hall be used for community use; other terms will be similar to those already stated in the present lease.
John commented that the CCs dealings are open and transparent; and although he cannot say with certainty that an Albemarle Lease will be granted it is hoped that it will be given CC approval. The time taken to get CC approval, after the lease and Scheme proposal have been prepared and submitted, can be expected to be around 3 months.
In 1971 when the ground rent was set at £1 pa this was for a bare site with no money to build a hall. Since then we have continued to enjoy this low rent, but Bob commented that this period has now come to an end and we must expect to pay more. Bob believes that he can put together a business plan to show that the new hall can be viable. A vote was taken on the present proposal of going forward with the lease as described; the majority present were in favour. Paul was concerned that we still need to look at alternative options. Neil commented that according to the present lease the PCC would own the hall building at the end of the lease period; this reversionary interest would mean that the insurance money would have to be used for building on the present site. Neil thought that the terms of lease seemed very fair.
The next stage - the lease consists of 2 parts: the formal lease which is a legal document between the PCC and the Bristol Diocesan Board of Finance and the PC and attached is a Trust Deed which sets out who will manage the hall, how meetings are arranged, who are the members of the committee etc. The draft lease and the Trust Deed need to be submitted to the Diocesan solicitor who will then finalise them and submit them with the application for an Albemarle Scheme to the CC. Bob wants to make some changes to the Trust Deed to make it easier to manage the hall affairs; Neil suggested that there must be precedents we can use to create a new Trust Deed.
1.5. Final Design Issues - There are still some issues that need to be resolved, such as the corridor, the acoustic curtain and the ceiling height. Dave has measured the ceiling height in Grittleton hall, and found that it was only 3.4m maximum; it was thought to be higher than this. Securaccom ceiling height is 3.1m at the eaves increasing at an angle of 22 degrees to the apex. (This would give a height of 5.5m at the apex AD)
A vote was taken as to who was in favour of a ceiling height of 3.1m. 7 were in favour; 5 wanted a higher maximum height.
Bob suggested that a sub group should meet to finalise the plans for the new hall. This group will consist of Paul, William, Peter and Bob.
1.6. Future tasks and schedules attached
1.7. Insurance repayment - Cornhill insurers are aware of our delay and there will be no problem with them honouring the maximum liability.
1.8. Summer Ball at Grittleton Jebbie has been working on a business plan for the ball. If 250 people attend paying £30 per head around £3000 will be raised for the hall. With a good quality raffle this could push the amount to £5000. Grittleton will provide the disco; Jebbie is still looking for a live band. The £30 would include a 3 course sit down dinner. Concerns were expressed that the ticket price was too high and would exclude some villagers. We need to know the minimum number of tickets that need to be sold to break even. The hall user groups will be canvassed to see what interest there is in the village; Paul suggested using the Ramblers website and also the village website to further gauge the interest.
1.9. AOB The WI requested the use of the hall site for a car boot sale. While everyone agreed that this was a good idea it is doubtful that the insurance will cover such a use. Bob will check.
1.10. Date of next meeting Wednesday 23rd March 2005 at 8pm at The Court House.
2. Village Hall Management Committee business
2.1. Date of AGM Tuesday 24th May 2005 in the church.
2.2. Publication of 2004-2005 accounts it was agreed that an external auditor be used.
2.3. Village Fete 2nd July clashes with The Festival of the Sea. July 9th is a possibility.
2.4. VE/VJ celebrations. We could hold the fete on July 9th and theme it with the VE/VJ celebrations.
2.5. There is a Community First information day and AGM on Saturday 14th May if anyone is interested in going.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 10pm.