Agenda item

Consider report by Director Strategic Commissioning and Partnerships.  (Attached)

1.1         During discussion of this item, Councillor Thornton-Nicol noted she was Chair of the Newtown Community Wing and Councillor Anderson noted she was the Council Representative on Peebles Drill Hall management committee.  Neither Councillor declared an interest in the item and remained in the meeting.

1.2         There had been circulated copies of a report by Director Strategic Commissioning and Partnerships that outlined an evaluation of the community contribution to the management and maintenance of public halls, including those managed by Live Borders.  Scottish Borders Council had responsibility for 62 halls, and the Federation of Village Halls indicated they had 96 members in the Borders.  Scottish Borders Council retained maintenance and repair responsibility for the 62 halls that it was responsible for, including those leased to Live Borders, and individual leases contained information on the level of maintenance and repair obligation, including where Communities/Voluntary Management Committees had no obligation or responsibility.  Scottish Borders Council provided annual funding to the Federation of Village Halls of approximately £50,000 per year and Live Borders provided voluntary management committees with funding on an annual basis towards operational costs.  The social value of halls/community centres included use of the venues for regular local events and activities, emergency response and Covid-response.  Volunteers also regular fund raising for improvements to their building, and as a proxy measure, this could inform the ‘community contribution’.  Programme Manager, Mr McMurdo, advised that anecdotally a number of community centres had voluntary management committees, although some faced challenges maintaining their management committee and recruiting young members.

1.3         Under the Service Provision Agreement Scottish Borders Council had with Live Borders for the delivery of sport and cultural services, 29 halls were under the contractual responsibility of Live Borders.  The maintenance and repair responsibility for these halls remained with Scottish Borders Council under the terms of a Property and Estates Service Level Agreement.  Members discussed the funding of halls and the support provided to management committee from Live Borders, noting the example of the Victoria Hall in Selkirk which was owned by the Common Good Fund and operated by Live Borders.  The Selkirk Common Good Fund was responsible for paying for maintenance while Live Borders retained income from the Hall.  While Live Borders provided funding to community centres, part of the process involved a recharge to the management committees, which meant these committees needed to fund raise to pay for items.  This process perhaps needed reviewed.  It was noted that the funding provided by Scottish Borders Council to the Federation of Village Halls areas implied that the value assigned to each area did not have a consistent funding per village hall formula.  It was advised this may have been due to some federations charging administration fees which may affect the respective funding value.  Members agreed that a paper should be brought back to the committee by officers outlining further detail of the management and funding of village halls, including the consistency in terms of support, which hall committees were active/dormant, which halls were struggling, and the shape of how hall committees functioned.  This would highlight where there were differences in usage, funding, characteristics and management regimes to allow the Committee to judge the fairness of the operation and funding of village halls across the region.

DECISION

(a)       AGREED that the Director Strategic Commissioning and Partnerships would provide a further report to the Committee including a statement of the operating characteristics and funding regime in regard to management and funding of halls across the Borders to develop an understanding of fairness and functioning of management committees.

(b)       NOTED the evaluation of the community contribution to the management and maintenance of public halls, including those managed by Live Borders as detailed within this report.

MEMBER

Councillor Fullarton left the meeting during consideration of the above item of business.