Village Halls
The Village Halls section of Cheshire Community Action in cooperation with ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) and the other Rural District Councils throughout England provide information, assistance and training services to the groups managing community buildings and associations throughout the county of Cheshire.
A way to see the extent of the work that we do is to study the sections in this web site and to look through our quarterly newsletter.
We are here to respond to the concerns of the volunteers who keep community facilities operational. We need your input to provide the best service.
A Village Hall Membership Form can be downloaded from our membership page. (Adobe Acrobat Format)
Landfill Tax Funding
The HMRC have extended the period of guarantee of continued charitable use required for projects funded by tax income. This has caused the companies supporting this scheme to stop funding new buildings and extensions.
Our major Cheshire funder from this source, Wren, issued the following statement on 6 November 2009 on their website:
Important Announcement - Changes to WREN Funding Policy With immediate effect WREN will no longer be accepting applications for funding to construct new buildings or extensions to existing buildings. WREN will still consider funding applications for internal finishes, fixtures and fittings within a newly built facility and will continue to fund the refurbishment of existing buildings.
Music Licensing
The playing of music in community building, pre recorded or otherwise has required the need for up to two licenses.
Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) issue licences and collect the royalties due under copyright law when sound recordings are used in public on behalf of the companies producing the records, tapes or CDs.
No licence is needed and no royalties are payable when the public performance is beneficial to, or part of, the activities of an organisation whose main objects are charitable or are otherwise concerned with the advancement of religion, education or social welfare. This of course includes events organised by the management committee of a charitable village hall and by other charities using the hall.
The Performing Right Society Ltd. (PRS) is a non-profit association, founded in 1914, representing music creators (composers and authors) and music publishers.
The fee for Village Halls is 1% of hall charges, 11/2% for the first payment.
The Government have been meeting with the Community Sector Law Monitoring Group (CSLMG) to simplify the existing law. The result, after consultation is to combine the 2 licenses and to remove the charities exemption (Option 1).
An alternative option (Option 2) which gave exemption from both charges to charities with an income of less than £2,000 was rejected; these are some of the reasons
- It created an unfair balance between the interests of right holders and users
- Turnover does not relate to how much an organisation uses music or for what purpose (for example, as background music or to raise funds).
- They anticipated that administration, negotiation and legal costs for both users and collecting societies would grow if this option was adopted.
The full details can be found on http://www.ipo.gov.uk/govresponse-musiclicensing.pdf
The notes say that this is likely to mean an additional cosy of about £100 per year in addition to the existing PRS charges.
Water Rates Changes
An amendment is being drafted into the Flood and Water Management Bill to allow the Water Authorities and Ofwat to have preferential charges where buildings are operating for the communities benefit. This work is not yet been complete, details will be posted on the website when available.
