Management of Village Halls OG68 C2 INFORMATION SHEET FOR TRUSTEES

In this section...

OPERATIONAL GUIDANCE

MANAGEMENT OF VILLAGE HALLS

INFORMATION SHEET FOR TRUSTEES

OG 68 C2 – 27 July 2005

Purpose

This OG reproduces the information sheet available to trustees outlining different aspects of village hall management.

Functional responsibility

For action

Charity Services

Contents

1. Common issues encountered by village hall trustees
2. Siting other facilities in village halls
3. Licensing the village hall to run a bar or to provide entertainment
4. Amalgamation of a village hall with a recreation ground or proposals to incorporate a sports complex
5. Membership of the management committee
6. Postponement or adjournment of Annual General Meetings (AGM)
7. Further information and guidance

Index to further related information


The Law	Refer to a lawyer	Refer to an accountant

1. Common issues encountered by village hall trustees
	This information sheet has been produced to help you as a member of a village hall management committee with some of the most common issues you encounter and point you in the right direction to get further help.
	Inevitably we cannot hope to answer all your questions or concerns in an information sheet but further information can be found on our web site or from other organisations, such as the Action for Communities in Rural England (ACRE) or the Welsh Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA). ACRE can provide contact details for your local Rural Community Council and WCVA has details of the County Voluntary Councils. These organisations have individuals who can help with the practical day to day issues of running village halls and also have written information for particular issues. Addresses for ACRE and WCVA are shown at the bottom of this sheet along with other organisations that may be able to help you.

2. Siting other facilities in village halls
	As village halls are at the heart of a village they have potential for multi-purpose use and are very often seen as an obvious place to site facilities such as Post Offices, information technology centres, village shops or a bar. Whilst the hall may be an obvious place, a new facility cannot simply override the existing trusts of the village hall or the rights of its legitimate users. It will therefore fall to you as trustees to consider how any proposals fit with the existing trusts of the hall and the extent of its use. ACRE has specific information to help village hall trustees where the desire is to set up a Post Office or technology centre within a village hall; their details can be found at the end of this sheet.
	It is quite possible to include all sorts of facilities in a hall, so long as you are clear about the basis for allowing them. In reaching a decision on whether or not to allow a new facility to be added, the starting point must be how this will fit with the hall’s charitable purpose. If it is clearly going to advance the hall’s purpose (which is usually to provide recreational facilities to improve the conditions of life for the people of the village but extend to providing premises for general public use – as distinct from purposes of private or commercial gain – which may then be used by individuals or groups) then the decision to add these facilities will simply come down to whether or not the charity can afford them and whether there is enough demand for them.
	Any facility that is not going to advance the hall’s purpose directly will need closer consideration by you. It may be that the alternative facilities will be charitable (if, for example, they’re to advance education or religion on a charitable basis) but outside the charitable purposes of the hall: the fact that they are charitable does not mean that they will automatically advance the purposes of the hall. Or it may be that they are simply not charitable at all (such as, for example, running a retail outlet for the village or similar facility). In these cases, your first consideration will need to be whether or not there is any spare capacity or unused space in the hall to house the facilities without interfering with the carrying out of the hall’s own charitable purpose. Assuming there is spare capacity, you will need to take account of the following:
	that the area to be used is surplus to requirements of the defined charitable use of the hall. It is likely that the kind of facilities proposed here will require exclusive use of part of the hall that is closed off from areas used by other groups;
	that the use of the hall for this purpose will not interfere with other organisations using the hall for the defined charitable purposes. The new activity should not limit the activities of regular users in terms of time required or physical space. The extent of the activity must not become the prime purpose for the existence of the hall - ie, it cannot simply be given over, mainly or entirely, for an alternative use where there are other legitimate users;
	that the governing document allows you to enter into a lease, if one is required, and that there are no restrictive covenants to prevent the proposed use. In order to lease space to other users your governing document must contain a specific power enabling you to do this (since otherwise you cannot do so compatibly with your obligation to hold the property for use as a village hall). You should take your own legal advice about this point and about the release of covenants, where they exist. An example of a covenant might be a prohibition on the sale of alcohol;
	that a proper agreement is reached for use of part of the hall under lease or license and that a market rent/license fee is charged for the use of the hall. The granting of either a lease or license will not depend upon the nature of what is required by those wishing to use the hall but the effect of that use on the premises and other charitable users. Your Rural Community Council, County Voluntary Council in Wales or legal advisors may well be able to help you decide the best course of action here.
		A lease will give exclusive rights to possession of part of the charity's premises for the term of that lease. A lease is an estate or interest in land. The governing document of the charity will indicate if you have power to enter into a lease agreement. Where you have power to grant a lease, that power must be applied in accordance with any conditions in the governing document and in accordance with s.36 of the Charities Act 1993 (see our leaflet CC28 and OG 54 on our website). A lease may be appropriate for an activity that requires a discrete area that needs to be separate from other activities and is required on a permanent or long-term basis, for example, a bar. The area of the hall subject to a lease should be a separate room with independent access.
		A license gives the user a contractual right to use the relevant part of the premises. You, as trustees, are not excluded from that part of the premises, so long as you do not interfere with the enjoyment of the contractual rights that have been granted. A license is appropriate where the user does not need discrete access or use, which thereby enables other users to access that part of the hall when not being used for this purpose. The use would again be on a permanent or long-term basis. Because the grant of a licence is not a disposal of land, it does not need to comply with s.36 of the Charities Act 1993, or require a specific power in the charity’s governing document, or consent from us.
	that the proposed use will not endanger charitable status, rate relief or grant funding. Charitable status will be compromised where the hall fails to be used mainly for its original objects. You will need to consider the conditions of rate relief or grants so that they are not breached.
	Proposals for these facilities might also form part of an overall package for rural regeneration, which itself may be charitable. If this is the case, they would need to comply with our requirements set out in our guidance for such projects – RR2 Promotion of Urban and Rural Regeneration.
	More detailed guidance about management of village halls and providing alcohol on charity premises is available on our web site, under Operational Guidance OG 68 and OG 63 and also in our booklet CC27.
	Details on how to obtain copies of our guidance are shown at the end of this sheet, along with names and addresses of other agencies that can be of help to you.

3. Licensing the village hall to run a bar or to provide entertainment
	The trustees and anyone hiring the hall are together responsible for obtaining the appropriate licence(s) for social events, including the provision of a bar, or public entertainment.
	You should direct any enquiries about licensing your village hall to your local authority. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have extensive information on their web site about the introduction of the Licensing Act 2003. The address is www.culture.gov.uk/alcohol_and_entertainment

4. Amalgamation of a village hall with a recreation ground or proposals to incorporate a sports complex
	Sometimes we are approached to help amalgamate a village hall with a recreation ground charity. This will mostly occur where the two charities have adjacent sites or perhaps where the idea is to build a village hall on a recreation ground.
	Before we would take any steps to formalise the suggestion (by means of a Scheme) we would expect you to have considered the respective trusts of each charity and how each element would be managed in a practical sense.
	The best interests of both types of charity will have to be properly and fairly served by the arrangements; for instance, it would be no good building a village hall on a recreation ground where it used up the majority of the land leaving no space for outdoor recreation. Neither would it be acceptable for the village hall to provide space to create changing rooms for outdoor sports where there was no room left for the user groups of the hall. These might be extreme examples, but nevertheless, they illustrate that the two charities still need to adhere to basic principle of having surplus land or space before they accommodate activities for the other charity.
	We do have a model Scheme combining a village hall and a recreation ground and you would need to approach us with your plans showing how such an amalgamation gives a more effective use of charitable resource for a common purpose, but still has regard to the original charitable trusts. Occasionally we do encounter circumstances where a village hall and recreation ground cannot be merged because of unusual provisions in one or both governing documents that cannot be removed. Consequently we may need to keep the charities separate but we may be able to provide for a common management committee.
	Another facet to this type of query is where we are asked to sanction the selling of a hall and recreation ground to facilitate the provision of a hall and recreation ground with a sports complex.
	When considering any proposals that would entail giving over proceeds of sale of a village hall or recreation ground for specialist activities, you must be satisfied that implementation of the proposals would not interfere with the charitable objects of providing a village hall or recreation ground. If the end result would not provide for village hall or recreation ground facilities, for use by the public on a permanent basis, then it cannot be considered to be in the interests of the charities concerned. Even where it can be shown that the proposals would be in the best interests of the charities concerned the proposals may, nevertheless, remain outside the objects of those charities and may therefore require our further consideration.
	Any proposals of this type will usually be complex and it is advisable to discuss them with an advisor at the Rural Community Council, County Voluntary Councils in Wales or with us, if our consent by means of a Scheme or Order is likely to be needed. Our publication, CC28 Disposing of Charity Land, sets out the requirements for sale of charity property as does our Operational Guidance, OG 54 available on our web site.

5. Membership of the management committee
	Village halls are usually run by a committee of management. The members of the committee are the trustees of the charity. They may sometimes be referred to as managing or main trustees. The composition of the committee will be set out in the governing document and normally includes:
	appointed members (called representative or nominated members in some governing documents). These are individuals appointed by the various groups using the hall on a regular basis and may also include the local authority;
	elected members, these are individuals who come forward in their own right to serve as committee member; and
	co-opted members (called non-official member in some governing documents). These are people who may be invited to serve by the committee, not the Annual General Meeting, because of particular skills or experience they can bring to the running of the hall.
	As trustees of the village hall charity each member of the committee is required by law to act in the interests of they charity and not in their own interests or those of the user group by whom they were appointed.
	In addition to the trustees listed above that usually form the management committee, there may be "custodian" or "holding" trustees who are there simply to hold the title to the charity's property. These trustees do not usually play (nor are they normally entitled to play) any part in the running of the charity unless they are appointed in another capacity. In most cases it is better to appoint a legal entity like the Official Custodian for Charities or a corporate body, as this approach avoids the time, legal formality and expense involved where individuals acting as custodian trustees change, retire or die.
	It is usual for the governing document to stipulate the numbers of each type of trustee and it is important to maintain a balance of different types of members within the committee. The majority of members should be those from the user groups. This ensures that the people for whom the charity operates get a say in the way it is run. When seeking grants for improvements to facilities the grant givers will take this into account. It is possible for grants to be lost where a hall committee is not seen to represent the whole range of its users fully. The number of elected members will be stipulated by the governing document, however, quite often co-opted members are not. Where the governing document does not stipulate we advise that those co-opted members should not exceed one third of the make up of the committee.
	The governing document will usually name the user groups that are entitled to appoint members to the committee and the committee will hold a schedule of organisations entitled to make such appointments. Occasionally some of the groups may cease to exist and need to be replaced by newly formed groups on the committee. Governing documents may provide for this eventuality but they sometimes confirm the need for permission from the Commission or Department of Education (in older deeds but now the Department for Education and Skills). We no longer give permissions but we will provide an abrogating Scheme which removes the requirement to seek our permission in future. In most circumstances, as stipulated by your governing document, you will be able to go about appointing or removing defunct organisations without our involvement.
	Charity Commission guidance in relation to these topics are CC3 The Essential Trustee and CC36 Amending Charities' Governing Documents: Orders and Schemes. ACRE also publish their own guidance on Roles and Responsibilities of Trustees. Details of how to obtain this and other guidance is shown at the end of this sheet.

6. Postponement or adjournment of Annual General Meetings (AGM)
	Holding of the AGM is usually a legal requirement, which is outlined within the hall's governing document. The governing document will normally specify when the AGM is to be held and the period of notice required for those who wish to attend the meeting and also the requirements for appointing a new management committee. It is therefore an essential element to ensure the smooth running of the hall.
	There will be occasions where it might be necessary to postpone the AGM (or other form of general meeting). The handling of this depends on the reasons for proposing the postponement and these generally fall into two categories:
	a genuine emergency (such as the 2002 Foot and Mouth outbreak) which means that there is no option but to reschedule the meeting;
	other types of problem which, though significant in their own right, do not mean that the meeting must be re-scheduled.
	In the first case, we take the view that the committee are entitled to call off the meeting and to reschedule it, giving suitable notice as required by the governing document, to a date soon after the emergency is over.
	In the second case, the committee should go ahead with the meeting as scheduled, but may wish to propose to those present that the meeting be adjourned to another date as a way of effectively avoiding or resolving the problem in question. The governing document may specify how an adjournment should be decided: if it does not, then the matter may be decided by a majority of those present and entitled to be there, if the meeting is quorate. If it is not quorate, the meeting must in any case be rescheduled and the members of the committee must make the arrangements.
	The main problem associated with either situation occurs where:
	the terms of appointment of some or all of the committee expire before the rescheduled AGM is to be held; and
	the charity is left without a quorate body of trustees as a result.
	This problem does not arise if the governing document provides that the terms of appointments expire at the AGM. It does arise, however, where the term is for a fixed period, such as a set number of years or until a set date, and the rescheduled AGM is to be held after the expiry of this term or date. In these cases, the options are:
	for the remaining committee members to appoint those trustees whose terms have expired to act as co-opted trustees under the governing document. The appointments should last until the date of the rescheduled AGM. The power to appoint can be used even where the number of validly appointed committee members has fallen below the quorum required for the conduct of committee business.
	if this option is not possible (because, for example, there are no committee members left), we can re-appoint the committee members by Order until the AGM is held.
	Our guidance on Charities and Meetings CC48 is available to help trustees. Information on how to obtain this guidance is shown at the end of this sheet. Your local Rural Community Council or County Voluntary Council in Wales should be able to advise you on handling the procedural aspects in these situations.

7. Further information and guidance
	When looking for information on day to day issues concerning village halls your Rural Community Council or County Voluntary Council are good places to start. They will have access to information from a number of sources including ACRE and WCVA. Our Operational Guidance OG 68 C1 gives details of these and other organisations that provide help for village halls.
	Charity Commission publications and guidance
	Publications can be obtained from the sources shown below. Our own Operation Guidance is available only from the web site.
	view and print from our website - www.charitycommission.gov.uk;
	order during office hours (8.30 – 18.00 weekdays) by telephoning us on 0845 300 0218;
	order outside office hours by telephoning our voicemail orderline on 01823 345427; or
	Contacting the Charity Commission about village hall issues:
	telephone our Contact Centre by dialling 0845 300 0218 (8.30 – 18.00 weekdays).
	For village halls in England, write to us at:
	Charity Commission 12 Princes Dock Princes Parade Queens Dock LIVERPOOL L3 1DE
	For village halls in Wales, write to us at:
	Charity Commission 8^th Floor Clarence House Clarence Place Newport South Wales NP19 7AA

	Other addresses:

	Action for Communities in Rural England (ACRE)
	www.acre.org.uk
	Somerford Court Somerford Road Cirencester Gloucestershire GL7 1TW
	Email acre@acre.org.uk
	Telephone 01285 653477
	Fax 01285 654537
	ACRE can provide addresses your local Rural Community Councils.

	Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA)
	www.wcva.org.uk
	Baltic House Mount Stuart Square Cardiff Bay Cardiff CF10 5FH
	Helpdesk 0870 607 1666
	E-mail help@wcva.org.uk
	Telephone 029 2043 1700
	Fax 029 2043 1701
	Minicom 029 2043 1702
	The WCVA can provide addresses for your local Community Voluntary Council.

Index to further related information

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