The Centre for Sustainable Energy has created a guide for community buildings to carry out their own energy audits. Their document guides you through an energy audit of your community building so that you can identify the most effective options for energy efficiency improvements.

This is essentially a checklist combined with guidance notes. You can use it as the basis for a carbon reduction plan for the building (which could include a whole range of free, low cost and higher cost measures) or to decide what improvements you want to install or to identify measures you may be able to obtain funding for.

If you are keen to pay for your own audit, the cost is £1,550 + VAT from EiE -Energy Information Exchange, based at Oxford Brookes University.

We've also compiled some more resources with information and funding for audits:

In June, we ran an online training workshop on Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers for Community Halls. A mixture of long-term and new community hall volunteers took part. It was lovely to find that the long-term volunteers, even though they had returned to their hall committee several times over the years, had not lost their sparkle and were very passionate about their hall. We send a huge thank you to all those trustees who are enthusiastic about their halls and keep them in good working order for future generations to use!

I've linked a post below that I think you might be interested in about attracting the right volunteers for your venue. It is written by Bernard Hammick, Managing Director of Hallmaster. Bernard talks about the need to give your volunteers confidence by offering training on the venue’s systems, maintenance protocols and legal responsibilities.

Some of his top tips are:

· Consider paid help. Booking clerks don’t necessarily have to live in your area if you have an online booking system. It is a good job for a parent or carer at home, or perhaps someone retired, who would not mind a bit of extra income.

· Look for user friendly booking and invoicing systems. Community First has a list of online booking systems that halls use.

· Train your volunteers and consider rotating roles to prevent burnout and ensure continuity.

Hall master - an online booking company - provides training on how to use their booking system. If you use other online booking companies, you can contact them to check if they also offer training to volunteers. As Bernard says, 'don’t leave it to one person' (in case they are ill or suddenly have too much to do).

We can also provide training for volunteers. We have run training on Recruiting Volunteers and Trustee Roles and Responsibilities this year. If you would like these to be repeated or have other ideas for training that would be useful for your hall volunteers, please email tessa@communityfirstoxon.org.

Maintaining your solar panels and heat pumps is important to make sure they are producing energy efficiently and safely. Dirty solar panels produce 5-25% less energy than clean ones, and maintenance over time can extend their working life, keeping your overall costs down. We’ve compiled some top tips and starting steps to look after you’re solar panels and heat pumps.

 

John Kightley from Bucknell VH has had phone calls from companies offering a free service, and then trying to sell new inverters maintaining that old ones are not efficient. John wanted to share that inverters can fail but some of them carry a 10-year warranty and are quite robust. If you’re worried about your inverter, it’s best to check the warranty as these vary in length.

John says that their local window cleaner checks the hall panels once a year and gives them a clean. He noted the importance of checking for algae growth, particularly round the edges, which should be carefully removed as it can be invasive.

Bucknell Village Hall also shared their experience of using a heat pump. Since it was installed 10 years ago,  a company checks it periodically, monitoring the wiring and the evaporator screen (which can become blocked with dust). So far they’ve had no issues with the pump.

John recommends the two companies that supplied their solar panels and heat pump, and these are now on CFO’s Recommended Suppliers list for halls. Please get in touch if you would like me to send this to you. 

The information from the centre for Sustainable Energy comes from their free guide Solar PV checklist: Questions to ask installers here:  https://www.cse.org.uk/resource/questions-to-ask-solar-pv-installers/ 

I'm looking forward to our Local Area Meetings this October, and wanted to let you know about changing the format.

Traditionally, Community First Oxfordshire has held local area meetings  in four different halls in each local authority area in October. Before lockdown these worked well were well attended, however we are now changing the format of some of these events as attendance has dropped.

Last year I held meetings focused on the the new fire regulations and funding for refurbishments, with two halls, North Moreton and Blewbury Hall, sharing their personal experiences of fundraising and managing projects.  Other attendees shared their experiences too, notably West Hendred.  

One of the meetings at the Thomas Hughes Village Hall in Uffington was well attended (despite the snow!), however the rest were a little low in numbers. For this reason  I will be holding the meetings mainly online - however, if you wish to help me organise at least one event in the year so that hall committees can mingle, do let me know. 

This year, the online events will be during the weeks beginning 13 and 20 October. I will share more information soon.  

Subjects for training this year will definitely include funding, and may include Martyn’s Law - though the law is only relevant to village halls with a capacity over 200.

If there are other subjects that you really would like training on, please let me know. 

Martyn’s Law - formally known as the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 - received Royal assent on 3rd April this year. However, it will take at least 24 months to implement the requirements of the act and there will be no legal requirement to comply until the legislation comes into force.

The regulatory body for the act will be the Security Industry Authority (SIA).

The Home Office and the SIA are working together to ensure that venues and events affected by the bill will understand what is required of them and how they can meet the requirements of this legislation.

In preparation for the measures that halls with a capacity of 200 and over are going to be asked to comply with, ACRE's halls advisers had a presentation from an officer from the West Midlands counter terrorism unit at our Halls Advisers Conference. We heard about the most common methods used by terrorist organisations and took part in a workshop. Having developed a better understanding of what halls are being asked to do, the measures do not seem excessive after all. 

Qualifying public premises are any premises that are wholly or mainly used for one of the purposes listed in schedule 1 of the Act. Halls come under no. 6 of the listed venues ‘a venue for hire for events and activities’. 

You also need to comply if you reasonably expect that at least 200 individuals may be present at the same time at your venue, at least occasionally. Premises with a reasonable expectation of having between 200 and 799 people present at the same time will be in a standard tier and those with an expectation of 800 or more will fall into an enhanced tier.

The responsible person ensures the requirements of the Act are met for a qualifying premises or event. Whilst in some cases this person may be an individual, it may be an organisation/ charity which has control over the venue or event.

Events that meet the following four criteria are known as qualifying public events and will also have to comply:

Events with fewer than 200 people expected will not be required to comply with Martyn’s Law as the Government wants to strike a balance between proportionality and security. Those with over 800 people expected will be in the enhanced tier.

For qualifying public events, the responsible person has control of the premises for the purposes of that event, controlling security and/or admission. If a company takes control of a premises for an event, and therefore who enters, they are the responsible person, whereas if the owners (or the committee) of a site host a qualifying public event, they remain the responsible person – responsibility cannot be delegated to contractors.

Please see the what you need to know guidance from Protect UK 

Several South and Vale community halls have recently had their household waste collection service removed and are being told that they need to pay for a ‘commercial waste’ collection. Apparently, they can only have a household waste collection if their local Parish Council holds meetings in their hall. This is a misunderstanding of the phrase ‘public meeting’.

A very important point to note is that the classification for community halls has not changed since the 2012 regulations.

Information Sheet 24 on Village Hall Rates, Waste, and Water says under Waste Collection and Disposal on page 12 that local authorities have the responsibility for waste collection and disposal across their area. They are entitled to charge for collection, but whether they can charge for disposal depends on the classification of the waste as household, commercial or industrial. The classifications are set out in the Controlled Waste Regulations 2012.

The Controlled Waste Regulations 2012 state that waste from premises occupied by a charity and wholly or mainly used for charitable purposes is classified as commercial waste. However, where the waste is from a place of worship or from premises used wholly or mainly for public meetings it is classified as household. The Regulations then state that waste from premises used wholly or mainly for public meetings may be charged for collection but not disposal.

The Government’s intention, following the consultation on the Controlled Waste Regulations 2012, was to ensure that village halls and similar community buildings (urban and rural) were not charged for disposal. It is unfortunate that they used the term ‘premises used for public meetings'.

ACRE’s understanding is that the qualifier “wholly or mainly” means that it is not necessary for a premises only to host public (rather than commercial) meetings for its waste to be treated as household, only that its whole or main use is for public meetings. This envisages a tolerance for some degree of commercial meetings, but also a tipping point when the premises are no longer being used “wholly or mainly” for public meetings when a local authority can charge.

There is no definition of ‘public meeting’. It could be argued that it should be interpreted as meaning a meeting to which members of the public are admitted (whether for payment or for free). If a village hall is being charged when, as a venue for public meetings it should not be, then it should take the matter up with its local authority.

What is clear is that the term ‘Public Meetings’ does not refer only to Parish Council meetings, otherwise how could a hall hold mainly public meetings?

Community First has challenged this decision, which so far has been met with a refusal from South and Vale to reconsider.

Please contact me tessa@communityfirstoxon.org if your bin collection has been affected or if you have any thoughts or comments on this.