Village Hall
Newnham Village Hall Project
Progress Report
February
Plans of a possible arrangement of a new village hall, created within the The Club will be available to view at The Armoury Hall between 10:30 and 4:00pm on Saturday 18th February. They will be displayed again in The Club the following Saturday 25th February between 11:00am and 4:00pm. There will be someone in attendance who should be able to answer your questions, or make arrangements to answer them.
Hopefully you will have already had a leaflet telling you about this event. Later on before the end of March, the Village Hall group will be carrying out a full survey of residents’ views, before taking any further action.
January
For many years the Armoury Hall committee have been considering the provision of an alternative and more easily managed property as a replacement village hall. In 2006 Newnham WI offered to donate their site towards the same objective. In September 2009, a working group established by the Parish Council Local Plan Steering Group, published a report on the options open to Newnham in respect of securing a fully functional village hall with more comprehensive facilities than presently offered by the Armoury Hall. The working group carried out a detailed examination of these existing facilities and other possible sites. They concluded that in the short to medium term a suitable site available to build a new village hall, which was accessible, and centrally located, was unlikely to become available. Of the existing facilities the working group’s view was that only The Club had significant development potential to accommodate more activities, and as it was once the “Town Hall” has a heritage, and architectural presence, which is difficult to ignore. Since all of the existing facilities have an increasing need of maintenance, the working group’s recommendations were that the development of the Club was the most appropriate solution with proceeds from the sale of the Armoury Hall and the WI Hut sites being put towards the cost of upgrading the Club building.
These recommendations were presented to the Parish Council and representatives of the three organisations most affected (the Armoury Hall, the WI and the Club). In order to take the matter further it was agreed that the WI, the Armoury Hall and the Club would work together with the Village Hall Working Group to see if its recommendations were legally, physically and financially possible. It was accepted however, that once these issues had been looked at, any recommendations on the Club becoming the new village hall would have to be acceptable to Club members and approved by you, the residents of the parish.
Much progress has been made with agreement in principle between the three parties to advance the project. The WI, the Armoury Hall and the Club have agreed to jointly fund the initial legal enquiries about constitutional issues and charitable status. The advice is still awaited, but the implications will need to be considered by all the parties concerned, the WI, the Armoury Hall Committee and particularly Club Members, and hopefully a new constitution and management structure can be drawn up which is acceptable to all. Once the legal advice has been received and any constitutional issues resolved the working party can then concentrate on the physical issues. It is confident (based on initial architectural advice and drawings) that the structural changes to the Club are achievable, although this will need to be confirmed by a detailed design study. These changes will include improved access, a lift to the first floor function room, a kitchen and an additional function room on the ground floor. Planning applications will have to be made not only in regard to the changes to the Club building but also in respect of the development of the sites of the WI hut and the Armoury Hall. The design study and the planning advice will lead to more accurate costing, and clarify the financial implications. Once all this information is known the working group would be in a position to make applications for grant aid to meet any financial shortfall. However, before this happens the working group will need to know that the residents of the Newnham area are in favour of these proposals. The working group are unable to take this further unless it is supported by you.
The working group plans to display its proposals for the new village hall early in the New Year, so that you will be better placed to make a judgement on them. Following that display each household in the parish area will be asked to support or reject the proposals.
(Village Hall Working Group: Robin Copeland, Pat Davey, Trevor Firman, Chris Jones, Chris Kenny (Chair), Kevin O’Hara, Mike Penny, Pete Stephens)