Bawdeswell’s example of how to rebuild a community facility

At the Stimpson’s Piece public meeting on 20 November, members of the Bawdeswell Village Hall Management Committee shared their experience of demolishing and replacing a not-that-old community centre, advising that Reepham’s community facility should be run by its own management team.
 

Artist’s impression of the new Bawdeswell Village Hall, which is due to open in July 2015

 
With the help of lottery funding, Bawdeswell is in the process of replacing its building with a new £700,000 purpose-built facility that is due to open in July 2015.
 
Committee chairman James Lilwall, who has been involved in the Bawdeswell project for the past 10 years, said that, while it has taken a long time and much effort, engaging the community is the key: “You need enthusiasm and interest from the outset,” he stressed.
 
Although this community hall was only 20 years old, it was not fit for purpose, underutilised and not financially viable – the building was restraining the village from moving forward, he said.
 
“We first had to form a new management committee comprising an enthusiastic and energetic core team, many with professional skills, who helped define a vision for the project.
 
“We underwent training, created a network and started to talk with other towns and villages that had been successful in their projects, which enabled us to focus on ours.”
 
Following a village appraisal, the village hall development committee (as it was originally called) organised a door-to-door survey of the community to build up evidence to show how the existing facility was not meeting their requirements. This survey also looked at other areas of village life to demonstrate the whole village’s wants and needs were being identified.
 
In the meantime, Project Bawdeswell was created, which had its own identity and logo, although without any strict governance at the time. It was established to encompass the whole community and entire village infrastructure.
 
A number of user groups based at the village hall were established, including an activities group and those for younger and older people. This led to 33 regular users a month to help drive income, although these highlighted the facility’s inadequacies.
 
“The steering group then focused on the children’s play area and raised £60,000, including grants for improvement,” said Mr Lilwall. “This area then became a real hub for the community with parents wanting toilets and a café on the site, for example.”
 
The project was able to get professional help, such as assistance with preparing a business plan with diversity at its core, which is essential for any funding application. Mr Lilwall noted that many village halls in Norfolk are financially unviable because they do not meet the requirements of the whole community.
 
Architects were engaged to produce designs and plans to give people a real vision of the project and to engage the community further.
 
Meanwhile, local fundraising helped create additional revenue for the “new hall fund” such that “everyone was committed financially”.
 
“A funding strategy is absolutely key,” Mr Lilwall emphasised, “and the only place for us to go was the lottery.”
 
He admitted that such a process with its three-stage application is not easy, but stressed there is assistance available to help communities succeed.
 
“The Lottery fund wants to invest in communities, but there has to be broad community enthusiasm and support for these facilities.
 
“The evidence we produced defined the need, and demonstrated that the existing building was not sustainable for the future.
 
“We have now designed a very flexible space to produce the outcomes based on the evidence. It will not be a financial liability and will be sustainable in the long term.”
 
William Mason, treasurer of the Bawdeswell Village Hall Management Committee, explained that the Big Lottery’s Reaching Communities buildings programme could be used to fund either rebuilding or refurbishing – “what matters is the outcome”. In Bawdeswell’s case it contributed £540,000 or 77% of the total project cost of £700,000.
 
Mr Mason pointed out that the management committee are the Trustees of the Bawdeswell Village Hall registered charity, while Bawdeswell Parish Council is the “custodian” or “holding” Trustee.
 
“The Parish Council has no direct involvement, apart from the appointment of two Trustees to the management committee,” he said.
 
Mr Lilwall added: “As a management committee we have to work cohesively with the Parish Council – there must be no divisiveness or divide between the two.”
 
See our earlier news story:

 

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