Chittlehampton Village Hall Update – December 2023
Unfortunately, the National Lottery has not accepted our attempt to apply for £350,000 of funding for the renovation of the village hall from their Reaching Communities Fund. Our summary application, which is the first stage of the process, was assessed to be not within the 1 in 5 of top priority applications that they received. As a result, we are among the 80% of applicants that will not be invited to submit a full and more detailed application. The following explanation was given which we want to share with you.
“We appreciate the time and energy required to pursue an application and I know that our decision will be disappointing to you. We receive far more proposals for Reaching Communities funding than we are able to support. Currently just 1 in 5 applications are invited to the next stage of assessment in Devon. Because we get so many funding proposals we have to make some tough decisions around which ones to take forward. So we only ask organisations we’re likely to fund to spend time writing a full application.
To help demonstrate the competitive nature of Reaching Communities, we had a budget of £326m in England between April 2022 and March 2023, however in that time we received applications for nearly £1.2 billion in total.
Why we can’t fund your project: As part of our assessment we need to take into account our current investments, competing applications, and other existing services; this is with a view to investing in a diverse range of projects (revenue & capital) across the county of Devon. The panel have chosen to prioritise other applications on this basis.
This is a bitter disappointment for the village and we have asked for more detailed feedback that we can use to tailor a future application but, knowing the highly competitive demand for funds in the South West, it is a decision that is not entirely unexpected.
Our application to the Community Ownership Fund for £250,000 (most we can apply for given our size) has successfully completed the assessment stage and has moved into the next stage of moderation and due diligence checks. It is a major funder from the Government’s Department of Levelling Up whose mission aligns with our community objectives of meeting the needs of the community and essential renovation of a community asset that is at risk. We have been given an expected outcome date of end December 2023.
Yes, it is a long, tortuous and uncertain process to gain the level of funding that we need, but we shall persevere.
Further applications for funding are being drafted for submission to smaller charitable trusts once we have more accurate costings from our Quantity Surveyor, based on the detail design work we have done, and when we have formal quotes for the work.
Detail design work continues and a general ‘clear out’ of clutter and unwanted equipment in the old school kitchen has been completed. Removal of the unrepairable oven and stainless steel items will be done this month, hopefully.
Jimmy has been busy updating the village hall website to include a gallery of photos and updates on the hall, and a link to the minutes of the AGM.
The Christmas Fair was once again a great success with a range of local stalls, mulled wine, mince pies, tea, coffee and cakes and, of course, our much-loved mischievous elves to help children write their letter to Santa. A total of £380 was raised which will be shared between the Village Hall and the Play Area Group.
The newly formed Historical Society and Arty Crafters Club are being well supported, including the very popular Christmas wreath-making workshop, and it’s nice to see that Carole Wyatt has taken on the yoga sessions in the hall with the possibility of a sound therapy session as well.
Please let us know if you can help us in any way to move things forward or to raise funds for the hall. It will be much appreciated.
Thank you for your continued support.
Chittlehampton Village Hall Trustees
