MINUTES OF HULLAVINGTON NEW VILLAGE HALL PROJECT GROUP MEETING
PRESENT: Dave Hunt, John Greenwood, Julian Greenman, Peter Parry-Williams, William Harmer, Paul Hadley, John Metters, Anne Durrant, Mark Collard.
1. New Village Hall Project Business
1.1. Apologies: Bob Fenner, Joan Shaw, Neil Hamilton, Victor Rawlins, Helen Kemp, Maggie Bawden, Jebbie Hewitt,
1.2. Minutes of the last meeting held on 19th September were corrected and signed.
1.3. Matters arising – there were none
1.4.
Update on Albemarle Scheme and
lease – John reported that the
Charity Commission is happy with the minor alterations to the Albermarle Scheme
put forward. Notice of the proposed Scheme has to be publicly displayed for 4
weeks before being granted. The Scheme itself will be available for inspection
at
The Rectory, Stanton
St Quinton
The Rectory, Stanton St. Quinton. The PC had not made any comments on the draft
of the new lease. The PCC had suggested that a statement about the annual 24
hour closure of the gates be included. The draft lease will now be sent to the
solicitor.
1.5. Implications of paragraph 12 in the Lease Schedule – Paragraph 12 of the Schedule states that ‘the committee shall …keep indemnified the lessees against the rent and against all rates taxes and outgoings whatsoever… which are or at any time may become payable’. William pointed out that, when the rent was £1/year and the hall was regularly used, this was never an issue. However with the new rent being £1200/year and pre-school not contributing to the income of the new hall, it may well be possible that losses will be incurred in the beginning. It was thought that the Hall Committee could be liable to personally make up for any losses, which is unacceptable. Indemnity insurance may be a possibility but was thought to be prohibitively expensive. Another solution may be to include a ‘reverse covenant’ in the Lease so that the PC would take back responsibility, but the PC might then demand a much greater say in who was elected onto the committee.
Paul commented that we need to fully understand the risks present. He suggested that we could create a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) so that the PC can indemnify us without involving any other parties. The Charity Commission may be able to offer help and advice. Perhaps they will allow us to delete the clause. This problem must be common to many other Village Halls; maybe the Village Halls Association can also advise. After much discussion it was agreed that we need to take legal advice. John M commented that Paragraph 2 is also contentious. He will talk to John Haddrell of Harris and Harris, the solicitor dealing with the lease about the legal issues, possible ways forward and costs involved.
1.6. Report on progress of the Technical Spec. sub-group
1.6.1. Preparation of briefing document for Reviewing Surveyor – John M reported that 3 potential surveyors had been contacted and Michael Parry had been chosen as the preferred candidate. His quote for appraising the design brief and raising queries and negotiating any changes with the contractors, carrying out inspections and monitoring the work, and advising on the contract, checking planning and building regulation consent was just under £2000, which was within the expected price range. There was a unanimous vote to appoint Michael Parry as our surveyor.
1.6.2. There is a meeting with Michael Parry planned for Wednesday.
1.7. Report on progress with planning application – As Bob was not present there was no report on this. However, Bob had noticed that Terrapin’s plans state that they are not suitable for planning applications. It was thought that this may just mean that extra drawings are needed to support an application.
1.8. Report on financial matters – no report as Bob was not present
1.8.1. £55K loan application from PWLB – this has been approved by the PC.
1.8.2. LTC grant application – Bob is working on this
1.8.3. Awards for All – Mark Collard has been looking into the possibility of obtaining an “Awards for All” grant. This money comes from the Lottery Fund, and awards are given up to £5K. An answer is promised within 8 weeks, and Mark thought that it looked promising. We need to work out what exactly to ask for, once the contents insurance money has been allocated.
Peter has been contacted by Miranda Gilmour asking if we wanted to apply for a community grant before the deadline of end of January.
1.9. Overall project plan – next tasks
1.9.1. Initiate process for re-connecting electricity supply – Richard Warren has agreed to do this.
1.9.2. Refine contents list – Helen has been working on this.
1.10. AOB – Jebbie has offered her resignation from the Hall Committee. Pre-school has now bought a mobile classroom to be erected on the school site, and so it will definitely not need to use the new hall.
1.11. Date of next meeting – Wednesday 11th January at 8pm at The Court House.
There being no further business the meeting closed at 10.05pm.