Exciting times for our Village Halls !
Background
The Leigh Village Halls are for the benefit of and are used by the the local community for various events and sporting activities. Currently, these include a Pre-school, Parties, Wedding Receptions, Meetings, Dance Lessons, Physiotherapy, Dog Training, Pantomimes, Choral Performances, Badminton, Table Tennis, Indoor Bowls etc.
The Halls are held in a Charitable Trust, under the control of the Parish Council, for the benefit of the Village. Volunteer Trustees manage the halls.
The Future
To continue to maintain and expand the activities on offer, there is a need to make improvements to the halls.
Both halls need updated kitchens, heating systems need to be more efficient, flooring in the small hall needs replacing, the acoustics in the large hall need to be improved and new storage areas created.
These are immediate but expansion of our activities will require more.
Community Engagement
The Parish Council supports our project and has already helped us to engage architects to suggest some ideas.
However, since the halls are for the benefit of our local community we also want to consult with current and potential new users of the halls for ideas for improvement and new uses.
This is an exciting project and we are keen to get feedback and ideas from clubs, societies and individuals to ensure that the village halls benefit as much of the community as possible.
We held open days in September and an evening discussion with existing users in November. However, we need to finalise all feedback by the end of December this year so that we can move to the next phase which is to formulate the plans based upon the feedback received.
The Parish Magazine has a survey insert in the December issue which gives all village residents the opportunity to have their say. The survey can be either answered online or placed into the postbox outside the main village hall. Please take time to give your views so that we can improve the halls complex to be fit for our community use for the next 50 years.
This project will be a very expensive one and we need to get it right. We will require a lot of fundraising and will apply for grants. In order to qualify for grants we need feedback (including criticism of the current status) from as many diverse parties as possible.
It is therefore crucial to receive as much feedback as possible now!
We would also like to hear from anyone who would like to be involved in helping to support the ongoing use of the halls by becoming one of our trustees.
Contact either paula.beresford@btinternet.com or johntuke@hotmail.com for further information.