Fears for Studley village hall future as rent goes up from £1 to £33k
COMMUNITY groups have been left reeling following a plan by Studley Parish Council to hike the village hall rent from £1 to more than £33,000 a year.
There are fears the knock-on effect will make it too expensive for community and voluntary groups to meet at the venue. The building, funded by the village and then gifted by the management committee to the parish council in 2008 to ‘keep it safe’, is a bustling hub for many activities. In April, the parish council clerk wrote to the hall’s management committee to say the rent is going up from its current peppercorn level of £1 to £33,500.
Studley Village Hall management committee chairman Matt Fox said he was ‘gobsmacked’ when he saw the demand.
“We couldn’t believe the figure they came up with,” he told the Herald. “It’s completely unreasonable.”
A line dancing group, made up of mainly pensioners, are among those worried they may be priced out.
Most of the 70-strong class are in their 60s and 70s, with two in their 80s and one aged 92.
Teacher Jan Prior, 78, who has run classes at the hall for 14 years, said the proposed costs have left her ‘worried’. She fears that if the hall’s management committee are forced to stump up thousands more to the parish council, they will have no option but to put up hall hire rates for her and other group leaders.
“It’s such a wonderful hall and we’ve had such lovely times in it,” she said. “It’s a bit worrying that this will obviously have to be passed onto us as well but I don’t know if people could afford the extra money. And if we couldn’t do it, we’d have 70 people who would be quite devastated.”
Jan described how her classes break for coffee, biscuits and a chat halfway through because “it’s not just dancing, it’s social”.
She added: “We all mingle and if someone new comes, everyone helps them with the steps.”
Jan also teaches a small group of NHS nurses who found out about her class when they came to the hall to give Covid vaccinations last year.
Two-hour sessions cost just £5.
“I look on it as a hobby rather than a business,” Jan explained. “If we had to stop, it would be like losing a load of friends.”
Other groups using the hall include kickboxing for youngsters, yoga, weight-loss and a coffee morning for pensioners linked to the library.
Matt said the hall is self-funding, but he added: “We do our best to look after the groups and keep the rents down to a reasonable level.”
In a written statement, Studley Parish Council clerk Gill Lungley told the Herald: “Audit reviews from the last two years have shown that the council needs to be working more efficiently with regard to managing all of its assets.
“Basically, the parish council is looking after publicly-owned property on behalf of the local Studley council taxpayers and is expected to manage it responsibly for their benefit.
“The village hall rent review was conducted by an independent qualified surveyor and is being used as a starting point for rent negotiations.
“In respect of which the parish council has sought discussion and looks forward to hearing from the management committee directly rather than via local media.”
