Sibford Village Hall Refurbishment

The Sibford Village Hall was built nearly 60 years ago. Since 1957 the management committee have spent time and effort maintaining the fabric of the building, updating the kitchen, building the small hall and generally ensuring that the building is fit for the various village organisation that use the two halls on a weekly or monthly basis.

With the accelerating cost of heating oil and electricity, the committee commissioned an Energy Audit last year which suggested three areas of improvement: Main Hall Lighting, Main Hall Insulation and Lobby and Main Lavatories. Initial research indicates that the cost of these improvements will be between £15,000 and £25,000 depending on the level of energy saving achieved. The plan is to greatly reduce the running costs of the hall which in turn will help keep the hiring cost to local organisations to a reasonable level. Currently village organisations enjoy a substantial discount on the actual hourly cost of running the hall; the shortfall being made up with income from village hall organised events (annual fayre, films nights etc.)

The committee will be looking for grant funding and donations to meet the bulk of the costs but in the current climate a substantial amount has to be raised as ‘pump priming’ to obtain any grants at all. To this end the committee plan to run a series of events where ALL the proceeds will go into Refurbishment Fund The first two are an Evening with Wine and Cheese and a Dog Walkers Breakfast (see details elsewhere in the Scene).

Our village hall is a great asset and we look to the whole community to enthusiastically support our efforts in this major project. If you would like any further information or would like to make a donation, please contact a committee member.

… more from old Sibford Scenes