Village Halls - Homepage

The Village Halls website is a one stop shop for news, information and networking for anyone involved in managing a village hall or community building in Scotland.

Free play for your community - 15 Nov 11

The Baldy Bane Theatre Company, working with Road Safety Scotland, can bring to your hall the stage play Beter Late than Dead on Time. It's designed for performance to all generations within communities and covers many issues such as the various hazards to drivers and pedestrians which are dealt with an a humorous but realistic way.

Insulating a old stone hall in a damp Scottish town - 13 Oct 11

Great wee story about how Forfar Dramatic Society insulated their cold damp stone building.

St Abbs community awarded KeyStone Level One - 19 Aug 11

St Abbs Community Trust were recently presented with the KeyStone Level One award at a local event to celebrate their achievements. The Community Trust were one of five organisations managing halls to complete the award as part in the KeyStone pilot. The other four organisations were presented with their awards at the Village Halls Networking event in Birnam.

KeyStone Awards - 20 Jul 11

KeyStone is a quality awards scheme for the people who manage village halls and community buildings. It provides information, support and encouragement to help build a quality approach to management and recognises this through progressive awards.

Full list of News Stories

Letting it happen! - how to make church buildings work for you
This enormously helpful handbook has been written to help manage and develop church buildings and halls. However, most of the information is just as useful to those managing community and village halls. By following its advice, you should be able to look after your buildings and grounds better, manage their use and set cost-effective charging.

New! - Making buildings work for your community
This Glass-House publication highlights the major opportunities that good design in refurbishment can bring. There are practical examples of the way different projects have approached making changes to their buildings, as well as some recommendations of things to consider before you start your project.

New! - Rural Community Buildings in England 2009 - Key findings
This report provides early key findings from ACRE’s third comprehensive survey of the state of rural community buildings, updating data from surveys in 1988 and 1998.

New! Rural Community Buildings, Arts, Sports and Licensing Requirements
ACRE has released a third short report from the data collected in its national survey of village halls and similar rural community buildings. ACRE?s latest Report demonstrates the importance of a community building in a rural area for the provision of sports and the arts which can contribute to the education, well being and sense of history within a community. Regulation and licensing both impact on this provision and ACRE makes a number of recommendations that would support halls and contribute to the vision for a Big Society.

Rural Direct
Rural Direct is a service designed to help rural community organisations to access funding from a range of sources including the new Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP). Whether you're looking to refurbish your village hall, develop new local amenities and services, or work out a long term plan for your community's future development, funding is available to help you. They can help you get hold of it.

Fire safety legislation - 01 Aug 11
New fire safety legislation came into effect on 1st October 2006 affecting the majority of non-domestic premises in Scotland. The new fire safety regime is based on the principles of risk assessment and places responsibility for assessing risk from fire and providing appropriate fire safety measures, with those with control to any extent of premises (duty holders).

Building Projects - 19 Jul 11
Most halls will need to undertake a building project at some time. It might be refurbishment of the existing building, and extension or a completely new build. This page signposts the sources of help and guidance available to communities undertaking such projects.

keystone test - 01 Jul 11
keystone test

Alcohol licensing - 26 May 11
The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 came into force on 1st September 2009 and replaces the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976. A licence is required if alcohol is being sold. This page sets out some of the conditions that apply to voluntary organisations.

Hall access and awareness - 13 May 11
Village halls and community buildings are classed as service providers in the Equality Act 2010 and as such need to comply with the requirements of the act. In addition, hall committees will want to ensure that their building and activities are genuinely accessible and welcoming to all.

Calendar of courses and events

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