History
Hall Home. The Hall. Location. Activities. Administration. History.
The pictures at the bottom were from the archives of George Clay Partnership who were the original architects when the hall was built.
Blue – Past Parish Councillors who served on Hall Committee.
C Current Hall Committee.
Although you can see that the Committee has changed over the years there has always been a strong Parish Council representation. At one time there were five active Parish Councillors on the Hall Committee.
This slide is information as at October 2019.
‘The Village Hall had become a 1960’s building which had fallen victim to years of vandal abuse and a lack of maintenance fund’.
The precept did not automatically provide funds to the Village Hall but would be a source of funding (a grant source) when the Hall Committee came to the Parish Council with its plans. The annual precept initially was £5,000 but did increase to £10,000.
It was believed that there would be sources of funding after seeing some of the other hall projects within KCC.
Architect appointed following a tender and interview exercise.
Became apparent that the funding that we had been led to believe would be available was not forthcoming, as we were not deemed to be in such a deprived area.
Public were asked for views and a change of emphasis from rebuild to refurbishment believe that was 2006/07 or 2007/08.
£17,436 spent on the Architect by Parish Council before change to refurbishment.
Clay Architecture Ltd commented that they were excited by the challenge to breathe new life into this old gem, even in intermittent phases, perhaps resuscitation is best done through multiple deliveries of breath.
Public consultation was key not only for public buy-in but also to prove to any funders that there was a demand for the refurbishment programme. It was from the public consultation at one of the Farmers Market displays a member of the public raised the idea for the Blue Room which was then incorporated within the plans.
Old fire doors only kept closed due to a piece of wood being placed so bar could not be opened.
Internal painting which was carried out by a number of Hall Committee members and other members of the public who came forward. The painting was paid for by a donation from a member of the public.
Note the white boarded up windows – these were replaced as part of Phase Three with what has become the new main entrance.
This included the internal roof panels being refitted where over the years they had become loose and fallen.
From left to right the front comprised of the following:
Green Room/Committee Room
Gents Toilets
Lobby for the main entrance
Ladies Toilets
Doctors Surgery/Receptionist Office
This was to become the following:
Green Room/Doctors Waiting Room/Small Room to hire
Doctors Receptionist Office
Doctors Surgery
Fire Escape
Additional Storage facilities
Gents Toilets
Disabled Toilet
Ladies Toilets
Kitchen
Bottom Ladies.
As you can see both had seen better days and there were no disabled toilet facilities.
Ladies Toilets.
Disabled/Nappy Changing Facilities.
Now Doctors Waiting Room, Committee Room, Children’s Parties, Dramarama Changing Room, First Responders Training etc etc. This is now an area which can be used in its own capacity, a welcome addition to the facilities available.
Garfield Weston gave us money to get plans, costings etc for any grant request which was really appreciated.
The Leader Programme were the first to say yes from our larger grant applications. This gave us the impetus to go for further funding.
Veolia required a presentation in Portsmouth but their grant came with a number of stipulations including none of their funds could be spent on the Doctors Surgery nor the Toilets. This made the project a bit harder as we inevitably moved costs round after work had started but had to ensure we could meet the funders requirements which we achieved.
It must be noted that had this been a Parish Council facility access to these grants would not have been available as the Parish Council’s had the ability to precept and collect the money direct from the parishioners.
In order to receive this money from Veolia Environmental Trust High Halstow Parish Council also paid a fee of £5,559.00 to Veolia ES Landfill.
The loan came from High Halstow Relief in Need.
New kitchen where the old Doctors Surgery was.
The electrical work was outside lights, floodlights for Village sign and vandal guards fitted by Ray Collins.
We were never in a position to have all of the money available in one go to bring the total cost of the project down. In addition some of the grants available would not have been available if the cost of the work we were carrying out in one phase would have exceeded £250,000.
I am proud that the Hall Committee had raised nearly 40% of the funding from its own activities. The Village should be proud of that as it was their support that raised the money.
Dramarama, one of our main hirers, using money from their own funds as well as a obtaining a grant paid for these improvements.
Ray and June Collins installed much of this again saving money.
Tender document agreed with the Architect was tight to minimise the chance of the builders coming across something which they could charge more for. All works were completed within the tendered price or under which with our budget being extremely tight was important to us.
All major works were tendered to ensure not only price was competitive but all the necessary checks on suitability of the firm carrying out the work were completed.
Minute 459 confirmed all monies paid back.
Kent Ghana’s Association
Children’s Parties
Youth Club
Stay and Play
New Jersey Boys
Village Cookbook
The Redford’s
We cannot name them all as there are so many and don’t want to offend anyone by missing them out. In addition the community has come along to the various events I would say in their hundreds as different events appealed to different parts of the community and different age groups so this was a Village Project supported by the whole Village.
There will be a need to prepare for ensuring the hall stays maintained rather than allowing the hall to fall into disrepair as had happened in the past.
We plan to have an active repair/redecoration programme to ensure the hall stays good.
The Committee is keen to continue to run Village events so that the Community can see the Hall is for them.
With the various house building projects being planned, we also believe we should be able to seek some of the S106 monies that would be available.
We would continue to seek grants where available if appropriate.
Taking bias away surely one way is to see how the hall is now used. If you remember the slide earlier which showed the regular hirers, well this is the first slide of current users.
All parts of the community catered for – still scope to increase predominantly during the day with costs of hiring set at a level which should not discourage people hiring the hall.
Craftastic
KENPO – Martial Arts
Salsa
Sound Hole
St James Pre School
Zumba
Question – Why were the Parish Council not involved?
Response – The answer was that they were including receiving presentations of plan and having Parish Council representation on the Committee. Grants were made after a request and not just paid over to the Hall Committee.
Comment – It looks like a prison camp
Response – One of our objectives is to have a better Village Hall Sign to make it more obvious where the main entrance is. The building has been designed so that vandalism is best reduced which has been a success to date.
Comment – East side of the building is boarded up.
Response – These are windows that were boarded up many years ago. Eventually the Hall Committee would like to extend out from this wall to provide further storage at the back of the stage. This though was not deemed a major issue for the present.
Question – Why was it not knocked down and built differently and cheaper?
Response – There is no evidence that it would have been cheaper as the estimated cost we had at the beginning showed it could be considerably more. In addition obtaining funding to carry this out would have been harder if not impossible as previously explained regarding maximum grants available.
Question – Why have sealed bids?
Response – This is the way you check that the bids are open and the funders expected it so they were confident the bids were fair.
Question – Did any of the Parish Councillors have a conflict of interest?
Response – No, the representatives were there to ensure that the Village interests were looked after. No monies were paid to any Councillor carrying out their duties.