Fees may rise at gainford Village Hall following row over funds

FEES to use a community hall could soon rise, according to committee members who believe it has been “deprived” of financial help towards maintenance costs.
The Montalbo Village Hall, in Gainford, has for the past four years received a £2,000 grant from Gainford Parish Council. The money helped keep the 18th century building in a useable condition.
But this year no donation was made.
Honorary treasurer of the village hall committee Tony Kennan and honorary secretary Neil Russell attended the parish council’s annual council meeting to express their concerns.
Mr Kennan said: “We were disappointed to note that  £2,000 that was allocated for community buildings was moved at the November meeting to another item.
“We can see that the village hall has been deprived of a grant to pay for legal advice that involves the village hall which is disappointing.”
He added: “We are going to be £2,000 short of our income which is approximately nine per cent of our costs in the last financial year. Our only way of getting money to support this building is through grants and charging people to use the hall. It is a very important community asset. We had 477 bookings last year. We will have to decide at our next meeting whether to put the fees up to use it.”
Mr Russell added: “It is an extremely old building and needs a lot of money spending.”
However, the parish council said no requests for parish funds were received so the matter has not been on any agenda this year. Councillors decided to reallocate their unspent 2016/17 community buildings fund of £2,000 to a budget named “other” last November. The money was used to help pay for a legal advice bill which rose to £6,072.85.
This was the cost of hiring a solicitor to research the parish council’s historical legal duty to the village hall and clarify  rights and responsibilities.
No budget had been set for such costs and it was proposed by Cllr Mark Charge and seconded by Cllr Lisa Johnstone that the unspent funds would be moved to the “other” budget, which is earmarked for unforseen situations.
Cllr Sarah Hannan said: “There are other community buildings in the village and we have made contributions to those over the year. There was a full six months before we moved it when nobody from any of the organisations associated with any of the village community properties made any application for the money.”
The parish council says it has supported the village hall with more than £10,000 of grants in recent years but there was no guarantee of future funding.
Parish council chairwoman Cllr Lisa Johnstone said: “The first two years were to provide additional support as the [county council’s] community village halls grant was scaled back. The last three years have been to support different building work and renovation on the hall which is now complete.
“In addition, the parish council has saved the village hall thousands of pounds by managing the spend on the kitchen refurbishments and more recently the boiler works.
“We have also made substantial donations every year to the Big Weekends and fun days through the village hall accounts.
“The community buildings fund exists to enable any community building within the parish to apply for a grant for building work which is sustainable, costed and of benefit to the parish. We did not receive any applications in the last financial year including from the village hall.”
Mr Kennan told councillors that the committee was not aware that they had to apply for funding as they
hadn’t done so in the past.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr Kennan said: “Was it really fair to deprive the village hall of a £2,000 grant? There were other items clearly indicated at your year-end that have been underspent. It has caused us some concern.”
The parish council agreed to consider any future requests for funding from the village hall.
Cllr Johnstone said: “We understand that the village hall now has very healthy cash reserves and is likely to be in a position to fund any work needed on the hall.
“However, if they have a specific project they wish to apply for a grant for we will, of course, consider it. 
“As custodian trustees we remain committed to ensuring the village hall continues to be a sustainable and valuable asset to the parish and will continue working with the village hall committee to ensure this is the case.”