NORTH FERRIBY VILLAGE HALL TRUST

Minutes of the Meeting of the Management Committee

held in the Village Hall on Thursday, 27thOctober 2011

Present:

In attendance:Bill Stelling

  1. Apologies for absence

Apologies had been received from Claire Hutchinson, Paul Lees, Carol Robertson andMark Willett.

  1. Minutes of last Meeting

The Minutes of the meeting held on 29th September, which had been previously circulated, were approved as a correct record of the proceedings.

  1. Matters arising from the Minutes

Item 3.8, First Steps Playgroup: Mrs. Jolly confirmed that she still had no definitive information about a new pre-school, and her attendance figures remained the same.

Item 4, Caretaker’s Report: (a) In response to a question fromthe Chairman, Mr. Stelling confirmed that the guttering had still not been fixed. The Chairman asked him to obtain a quotation from the local window cleaner for clearing the gutters at the front, since they were causing damp inside the building. (b) Terry Black had replaced the water heaters in the front toilets but had not made good the rendering outside the Priory Rooms; Mr. Swindin would contact him about this.

Item 8, Any other Business, Christmas Decorations: Mr. Stelling had spoken to Mrs. Selkirk about her Christmas decorations but she was not prepared to let the Village Hall continue to use them.

  1. Caretaker’s Report
  • Mr. Stelling had been asked by Mrs. Hutchinson to raise the question of the stage curtains, particularly in the light of MAD’s forthcoming Children in Need event. The opening and closing mechanism was broken, and the curtains badly torn. Mr. Swindin would contact Mr. Lees or Mr. Smith to find out exactly what was the matter with the mechanism; Mrs. Hudson had a contact who could oil it if that would solve the problem.
  • A one-hour Zumba class had started on Monday evenings and an organisation called Zumba Gold had enquired about holding an hour-long class for over-55s on Monday afternoons.
  • The people in Swanland with the mobile fish and chip van had asked if they could sell from the car park. It was recalled that two years ago they had made the same request and the Committee had decided, for a variety of reasons, that we were not able to accede to it. The Committee agreed to stand by its original decision.
  • The vacant Saturday evening slot was causing a loss of revenue. The Secretary pointed out that the availability was advertised on the webpage and there would be an advertisement in November’s “About Ferriby”.
  • There were still problems with the doctors’ mail. It was agreed that there was nothing more that the Village Hall could do; it needed to be addressed more forcefully by the surgery. The Secretary would contact Hessle Grange Health Centre once again.
  1. Correspondence

The Treasurer had been notified by HWRCC of thenominations to their board of trustees. It was agreed that since we did not know any of them we should not accept the invitation to vote for them.

The Treasurer had had a letter from Yorkshire Water about a road closure further down Church Road.

  1. Finance

Mrs. Hudsonpresented her financial forecast, saying that overall the projected position for the end of the year had just deteriorated slightly following receipt of a £250 bill from Terry Black for replacing the water heaters in the ladies’ toilet area; this, coupled with a slight reduction in lettings, had led to a forecast deficit of £502. The quarterly payment for the doctors’ surgery had been received so the loan from the redevelopment account had been repaid. There was a credit balance of £2,181 in the current account and £3,019 in the redevelopment fund owing to recent receipts from the 100 Club members.

  1. Premises

Sub-Committee: The Chairman felt it appropriate to take up the suggestion made at the last meeting of appointing a sub-committee to oversee the day-to-day problems of maintenance of the building. It was agreed to defer this to the next meeting, when it was hoped that more members would be present.

Surgery: Four matters had been raised by the surgery: (a) They felt that the automatic closure on the entrance door was too fast; Mr. Swindin said that it could be adjusted but this required a visit from the manufacturer at a call-out charge of £75. Since it had been installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s standard settings it was felt that any change should be the responsibility of the surgery. (b) They had requested changes to the external lighting. As it was unclear what they were wanting, and as they had accepted the original design, it was felt that this too should be their responsibility. (c) The defective cupboard door catch had already been repaired by Calverts. (d) They had requested permission to install a baby changing unit in the toilet. It was agreed that we could accede to all these requests, but that payment for them was their responsibility.

Redecoration: Mr. Bannister told the Committee that ProHelp provided support for charities which included redecorating; it was agreed that he would contact them since the whole of the Village Hall was in need of repainting. The Treasurer also had a contact whom she had approached for a price.

South Gable – Cement: Mr. Stelling reported that lumps of cement were falling from the top of the South gable and three ladders would probably be required for this repair. Mr. Swindin would ask Calverts for a price.

Damp in the Pre-School Storage Area: Mr. Swindin would ask Mr. Payne if he could assess this. Mr. Stelling said that there was also ivy growing up the surgery wall from the New Walk gardens.

  1. Kitchen Equipment

A paper prepared by the Chairman had been circulated with the Agenda. It was agreed that decisions about requirements could not be made by the Committee, and Mrs. Jolly agreed to lead a sub-committee comprising herself, Mrs. Robertson and Mr. Stelling. They would investigate what other similar halls had, how they managed the provision, what we should provide and where it would be stored. The Chairman asked if they could report back to the January Committee meeting. In the meantime, if anyone had any thoughts on the matter would they please e-mail them to Mrs. Jolly.

  1. Redevelopment

With regard to fund-raising, Mr. Bannister reported that around sixty people had attended a very enjoyable Quiz evening on 14th October. The next events would be the Ceilidh on November 11th, for which tickets were available, and the Produce and Craft Market on 26th November. He was most grateful for all the work which had been put in by the fund-raising group, and hoped that once the plans had been launched a larger group should be formed to concentrate on fund raising on a wider scale.

As far as the redevelopment was concerned, Richard Dennett, a qualified local quantity surveyor and project manager who had his own building company, had attended the last Steering Group meeting and had offered to arrange for phase 1 plans to be drawn up at half the quoted rate. The Secretary said that she had received an e-mail from Mark Willett in which, as a Committee member with the relevant qualifications, he had offered his support on the project.

Mr. Bannister and Mr. Swindin had had a meeting with an officer in the Planning Department, who was generally supportive of the whole idea of a community building. It transpired that a planning application was required to move the entrance door from the front of the building to the side. The planning officer would speak to the Highways Department on our behalf, and building regulations also had to be complied with. The planners did not see a problem with the phase 2 application for a single-storied building, except perhaps overshadowing of the houses on New Walk. Mr. Bannister had also met with the Strategic Assets Manager about the possibility of moving the library into the new building. He was unable to make a commitment at the present time as his budget had been frozen for three years; however, he would be keen to pursue the idea once budgetary restrictions had been relaxed.

With regard to funding, the Treasurer reported that she had investigated the Biffa awards but we needed to know how much we should be asking for, so drawings and estimates were a priority.

The Chairman thanked those members of the Committee who had supported the Quiz.

  1. Ferriby Festival

Mr. Swindin said that the programme was shaping up nicely and listed the events to be held in the Village Hall, which would be in use every evening from Tuesday, 29th May to Saturday 2nd June. There would also be a craft fair in the Hall during the Saturday daytime. Mr. Stelling had been asked to keep the Hall available for the time being throughout the week.

  1. Any other Business

Easyfundraising: Mr. and Mrs. Swindin had been approached by friends who had suggested that the Village Hall could benefit by registering with this site; people who shopped on line via the site could nominate the Hall to receive a proportion of the sale price. The Secretary was asked to register the Trust with the site.

Produce and Craft Market: Mr. Stelling had been asked if the kitchen could be opened earlier for refreshments for the stall holders setting up; he was asked to put the request to Mr. Aitken.

North Ferriby Pre-School: Mrs. Jolly asked for permission to affix an A3-size Perspex sign on the front of the building and an A4 one by the side door. This was agreed.

Side Door Lock: Mrs. Jolly asked if the lock on the side door could be changed to one not requiring a key to open it from the inside to comply with fire regulations and Ofsted requirements. Mr. Swindin would arrange this.

Newsletter: The Chairman intended to draft an article for the next village newsletter. She would mention the availability of the Hall on Saturday evenings.

  1. Date and Time of next Meeting

The next meeting would be held on Thursday, 24thNovember in the Village Hall. At the July Committee meeting it had been agreed to hold the November meeting on Tuesday, 29th as the Dramatic Society had intended to stage an Autumn drama from the Thursday to Saturday of the previous week. Since the production was not going ahead, it was agreed to revert to the usual fourth Thursday of the month.

Margaret Swindin, Hon. Sec.

28thOctober, 2011