Leigh on Mendip Memorial Hall Annual Report – 15 May 2006

The Hall has had a successful and busy year, the most important event probably being the successful application to become a licensed premises, following the changes last autumn to the licensing laws. Many thanks to Rod Cambourne for agreeing to act as our Designated Premises Supervisor, as without him this could not have happened and we would have been left with a limited number of occasions a bar could have operated each year, which may well not have been enough for the demand and would also have been more expensive for the hirers.

We have continued to attract a good number of regular bookings including table tennis and short mat bowls, both will be suspended for the summer but are due to re-start in September. Thanks to Graham Harris and Caroline for all the hard work put in to obtain the grant for the bowls equipment. This activity runs twice a week, on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday afternoons and is well supported. Also on the subject of grants we recently applied for and were awarded the Hallmark level One by the Community Council for Somerset, which we are told is likely to be required by many organisations giving out grants in the future.

We do still have many Friday and Saturday evenings free, so bear the Hall in mind for all your celebrations etc. Finally on bookings, we had a glimmer of hope for the re-opening of the Post Office as a lady in the village was prepared to do the training and operate it. However we understand the PO have deemed this too expensive to re-start so unfortunately it will not be happening

We noted that one of the suggestions raised by the initial Village Plan questionnaire was demolishing the Hall and building a new premises at the Rec Field. In spite of this we are still investigating the possibility of putting an extension on the Hall building to provide some much needed storage space and a small committee room. We are still very much at the initial stage in this process but if it does go ahead we feel it will be a useful addition to the village.

Finally the committee have worked throughout the year to maintain the Hall, both its fabric and its finances, and to look ahead to provide the most practical facility for our village. However if anyone has any suggestions or complaints we are always ready to listen.