Village Hall Steering Group Report

You may be wondering what's been going on with the village hall...

The Name

After much deliberation on the various suggestions, we are recommending to the MVA that the village hall be known as 'The Centre at Mawsley'....probably 'The Centre' for short!

Management

The MVA is in the process of setting up a Community Interest Company to run The Centre on its behalf. This form of Ltd Company is specifically for community businesses such as The Centre.

See:  www.cicregulator.gov.uk for more information. The Centre will be leased by this Community Interest Company.

Opening

The Centre is due for physical completion in October. At this point there are a number of legal issues that will have to be handled through a complex ownership change...from the builder ..to Wimpey.to Kettering borough Council.. To Mawsley Parish Council..to the MVA..to the MVA trading company running the Centre.

Whilst we are led to believe that this will all take place relatively swiftly, we were also led to believe that work on the playing field would begin in May ! Hence the Centre Steering Group is waiting for further information before committing to any opening date. If we were the 'customer', we could probably speed up this process and would be able to give you a definite opening date in November. However, we believe that no real movement on the transfer of ownership will take place until the building is finally complete.

In addition to the complex legal situation, we face a number of preparations to make the Centre usable for the village...insurance, cleaning, heat, light, power. We have already organised some of the basic furnishings for the Centre which can be finally ordered when we have a clear picture of timing. We have also begun the process of setting up an MVA trading company that will run the Centre on behalf of the MVA. However, it is almost impossible for the Steering Group to organise all the required facilities without the clarity of the timing for taking control of the Centre.

We hope that we will be able to offer usage of the centre for the Christmas period, but this is dependant on all the issues above and setting up suitable cleaning/caretaking facilities. If possible, we hope that the Centre will come into 'normal' usage early in 2006.

We would appreciate contact from potential 'user groups' who will make use of the Centre as we are now working on costs and usage policies.

However the Centre can only be open if there are people there to run it; we are seeking individuals who would be interested in paid and volunteer cleaning and caretaking for the Centre. Also, we need more people to volunteer their assistance in helping us through the 'setting-up' period.

For the purpose of complying with the new Licensing Act 2003 we will need to apply for a "Premises License" and as our business will involve the retail sale of alcohol we will also need to nominate someone with a "Personal License" to be designated as a Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS). The person who is the DPS must also apply for a personal licence at the same time as the "Premises License" and will have to hold the necessary qualification; we would therefore like to know if (a) anyone holds a suitable licensing qualification and (b) if you would like to work in the facility in a supervisory role would you agree to being trained?