National Village and Community Halls Network - Bulletin 1

View this email in your browser

Bulletin 10

Spring 2018

The National Village and Community Halls Network has the support of the ACRE Network. It's Terms of Reference can be found here.

ACRE and the Village and Community Halls Network will not provide advice, support and information for individual halls. This is provided by the local ACRE Network members.

More information about the work of the National Village and Community Halls Network can be found here.

Capital Funding available

There is funding available for capital works for village halls and similar rural community buildings from the 'Weston Fund'. This Fund is part of Garfield Weston's Anniversary celebrations and we encourage you to check whether your hall is eligible especially if you have a project that needs that last £30,000 or more, but the Fund may also consider funding 100% of the project.

The Fund closes on 30th June so take a look here for further information.

#VillageHallsWeek 2018
"A teapot as big as the moon" by Ian McMillan

ACRE co-ordinated the first ever #VillageHallsWeek in January 2018. The week of activity was a really good opportunity to raise the profile of village halls. Find out more from the ACRE Press Release here

We have a dedicated Twitter account (@VillageHalls_Wk) which we used as the central point for our social media activity. Please follow this account and also encourage halls in your area (on Twitter) to do so as well.
We used #VillageHallsWeek on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all posts during the event week to link activities across rural England together.
There were blog posts shared on the ACRE website on each of the days that week.

#VillageHallsWeek 2019 will take place from Tuesday 22nd January to 28th January so please put the dates in your hall calendar and keep in touch with your ACRE Network member to find out more.

Reminder to keep in touch with your local MPs

It is important for us all for village halls to be at the forefront of rural government policy. ACRE’s manifesto supports rural community buildings. Read more here. The National Village & Community Halls Network works at national level to raise issues and profile. It can correspond and speak with other national bodies, Government departments and officials and can sometimes reach Ministers.

For communications to be effective the support of constituency MPs from across all parties is vital. If constituency MPs are well informed about village halls; the activities and services they provide, the problems facing hall committees in managing and financing the building and any topical issue such as music licensing they will be in a good position to speak knowledgeably. Constituency MPs have access to Ministers and Civil Servants and to Local Authority officials; they listen and speak at debates in the House of Commons. If village halls come up in conversation or debate MPs will be able to put a case or argument together if you have provided the information. If they have no information or knowledge they won’t be able to do so and may presume all is well. Therefore please fly your flag; engage with your local constituency MPs by email, letter or on social media – get them involved.

Charity Tax Commission

ACRE attended the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Charities and Volunteering which considered the reform of the system of charity taxation in advance of the release of a call for Evidence by the NCVO led Charity Tax Commission.

The Call for Evidence was has now opened and will close on 6^th July. We understand there will be some public hearing sessions across the Country but these have not been announced yet.

ACRE will respond on behalf of village and community halls based on previous submissions to the Treasury but all comments are gratefully received.

Music Licensing PRS & PPL

You may be contacted by PRS and PPL when your licence is due for renewal as they have now merged the administration of all their licences for all sectors. This will see a change in marketing and promotion but village and community halls will still be licensed under the Community Buildings tariff criteria and there will be no changes to your fees. More about the announcement can be found here

The Royal Wedding

The BBC have announced that there will be no charge for a TV Licence. It means street parties and other special events can screen the wedding live without buying a licence. Usually a premises must be covered by a TV licence for showing live TV or iPlayer. See the announcement here

Halls with a Premises Licence including the sale of alcohol will be allowed to open for an extra two hours for the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises, from:

11pm on Friday 18 May to 1am on Saturday 19 May
11pm on Saturday 19 May to 1am on Sunday 20 May

A Temporary Event Notice (TEN) will be needed for the sale of alcohol where the hall doesn't have a Premises Licence including the sale of alcohol.

Norris & Fisher (Insurance Brokers) Ltd

If you are in the process of comparing quotations for renewing the insurance for your village hall then contact Norris & Fisher. They are keen supporters of ACRE and ACRE Network events and activities and will provide a no obligation quotation. If you are a new client they will provide a free insurance valuation. Find out more here

New Information Sheet 4

Contact your local ACRE Network member for a copy of 'Data protection for village halls and community buildings - a preliminary guide' if you haven't done so already. The GDPR comes into force on 25th May 2018. Contact details can be found here

EqualiTeas 18 June - 2 July

Sign up for EqualiTeas and receive a free host pack, full of goodies including a tablecloth board game, pack of debate cards, selfie placard, party banner, cookie cutter, recipe card, and badges. Join in the celebrations and share, debate and celebrate what equality means to you. Register your EqualiTeas event today!

National Village and Community Halls Network

Please continue to send us any thoughts and comments and we will share them with the other village halls and interested organisations that have signed up. For now please use this email address.

Please keep sending us your views on our 4 priorities:

VAT on extensions and alterations and the possibility of a VAT Refund Scheme.
How funding might best be sought for capital improvements.
The delivery of long-term advice and support for volunteers managing buildings.
The disproportionate charge for music copyright licenses where music is rarely played.

Twitter

If your village hall committee uses Twitter to share information within your community and with other hall committees then please follow ACRE @acre_national and use #villagehalls when tweeting.

Thank you to our sponsor

Forward

Our mailing address is:
Suite 109, Unit 9, Cirencester Office Park, Tetbury Road, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 6JJ

Copyright Â© 2014* ACRE, All rights reserved.
unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences /login.mailchimp.com/signup/email-referral/?aid=a2f30adda95147abda6dc3701"> Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp

" style="word-wrap: break-word;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #464645;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;">rewards