Nantwich community hall bookings suspended in staffing crisis

A long-awaited village community hall in Nantwich is already facing problems – just eight months after opening.

Stapeley Community Hall, on Pear Tree Field, took several years to first build and then open after ownership wranglings.

But Stapeley Parish Council is now turning down one-off bookings of the hall because it says volunteer committee members cannot be available to open and close the hall.

Now its future remains in the balance when the current lease held by the parish council ends on November 21.

Regular, long-term users of the hall are continuing activities such as Red Wellies nursery group, Beavers, Zumba classes and Yoga.

But residents interested in booking the hall for one-off events or activities are being turned away.

A spokeswoman for the parish council said: “The committee which was managing the hall on a day-to-day basis has been decommissioned owing to the unavailability of volunteers at key times – ie. weekend opening and closing the hall for parties.

“Regular users of the hall continue with their own activities as they are keyholders, but all casual bookings have been suspended for the time being.

“Weekend bookings which have been made up to November are to be honoured. It will be for individual parish councillors to volunteer to open and close the hall for such events.

“In the meantime, the Parish Council is discussing the longer-term future of the community hall with its legal adviser.”

The hall committee originally comprised five parish councillors and 12 members of the public, with volunteers dealing with the day-to-day operation of the hall.

However, the 12 volunteers has now reduced to just three.

“This meant the whole burden of opening and closing the hall was left to three remaining volunteers and was simply unworkable,” said the spokeswoman.

Residents in Stapeley saw their parish council tax portion rise to almost £20 for 2013-14 after the council earmarked around £23,000 to spend on the hall in the current year.

This includes £15,000 general running costs, £7,300 for projects, and £1,000 for legal fees. So far, just £2,146 has been spent on the hall.

In 2012-13, the council spent almost £5,000 on kitting out the hall, cleaning and legal expenses.