An update on the Village Hall from the Chairman, Neal Courtney.

Well, the trial of the Community Coffee Stop has now been completed and, as you read this, we are avidly analysing the figures to understand if it was viable financially, as well as being so well received by all of you who came to support us, and “manned” by the team of volunteers who provided such a fantastic friendly service. Here is a quote from one of the regular volunteers which I think says so much about our community here in Chieveley Village: 

"After my husband died, I was totally alone, no friends and nowhere to go. Volunteering at the Community Coffee Stop has given me an opportunity to meet lovely, friendly people. I find working with other volunteers is rewarding and fun, and we are all hoping for the trial to be a great success"

Additionally, our photo competition seems to have captured people’s imagination with a total of over 20 entries and lots of votes from our Coffee Stop visitors to pick first, second and third prize winners. As the final result was at the end of July, the winners will be notified by email and full details announced in next month’s Parish Magazine but, in the meantime, information will be on our website. The intention is to have many of these photos enlarged into canvas style prints and permanently displayed in the hall once it has been decorated in August.

In Summary, I envisage that we will be able to provide a real insight into all the results in the September magazine, including the photo competition winners, the mini-questionnaires which customers were kind enough to complete, and most importantly our way forward for such a facility if it is possible. 

In other news and this year so far, we have installed a hot water feed into the Clubroom kitchen and installed energy efficient lighting throughout the hallway, main kitchen, toilets and clubroom areas. Other exciting news is that we are now close to finalising our car park extension area on the edge of the recreation ground and strengthening the overflow car park.

Although grant awards have been much slower this year, we have still received around £35000 to date, and this will enable us to invest in the car park, decorate the internal walls of the main hall, replace all the guttering, install more electrical sockets in the Clubroom and refurbish the men’s toilets (the main hall and men’s toilets will therefore be unavailable during the last week of August). Should further funds come in during July and August we have a number of other improvements which we can implement without causing any disruption to users of the hall facilities.

You may have also noticed that the recycling storage containers for clothes and shoe donations have been moved. This is to allow for some update refurbishment to the south entrance area and frontage of the hall in our drive to improve the look of the hall exterior and hopefully begin to make it more attractive for events such as parties and wedding receptions.

As always keep an eye out for details of all the new and regular activities and events at your village hall on: our notice board outside the shop; on the banners and flyers around the village; and of course as always at the hall itself and on our website: www.chieveleyvillagehall.org and, if you have any questions, then please get in touch with Rosalind - our Bookings Manager. 

Yours sincerely,
Neal Courtney
Chairman