Parish Councils and Village Halls
Parish councils play a key role in the community and are in a good position to help support the village hall as their role is representing and meeting the needs of local people.
They have the power to "precept" from local residents (i.e. raise their own money through an element of your local authority's council tax system). This can be used to help pay for improvements in local facilities and services within the community.
Parish councils can work with halls in a number of ways:
- Regularly providing funding for hall maintenance from the precept so the management committee plan more effectively for both regular and intermittent expenditure
- Providing capital funding towards repairs or extensions
- Helping the governance of the hall by appointing a parish councillor onto the management committee
- Using the hall for committee or public meetings
- Helping to identify local needs through village appraisals or parish plans
- Helping to develop new activities by arranging joint meetings or providing small pump priming grants to those who want to take ideas forward
Parish councils can also take out loans from the Public Works Loan Board, to help improve facilities and assets, such as halls, that are owned and used by the community.
