APHAx appeal at Parish Council

Monday's Audlem Parish Council meeting began with the chairman of the APHAx committee, Roland Hall, supported by Geoff Stretch, putting the case for financial support for the Public Hall Annexe project by the parish council.

He said that it was not the Public Hall asking for support but the community as a whole, who had expressed strong support for more recreational and sporting facilities.

He described how the parish council had asked for a second parish plan in 2010 and how the idea for the new facility emerged from ideas put forward by the Youth working party and the 5As Theatre group.

The need widened significantly when Wulvern Housing closed down the old Thornton House so that ADCA needed a new home for its lunches and other activities for older and vulnerable local residents and at the same time Audlem FC was formed, who needed changing facilities in line with league regulations and available at most other sports venues.

With a grant of £23,000 from the Homes & Communities Association to explore the project, APHAx (Audlem Public Hall Annexe) was formed.

The total cost of building the annexe was estimated to be £600 – 700,000 and the bulk of that funding is likely to come from The Big Lottery's Community Building Fund who have been working closely with the APHAx committee over the past year as the grant application has gone through a number of stages.

The Big Lottery focuses on 'need' and they are satisfied by the strength of Audlem's arguments and the skills on the APHAx group.

There has been lots of community support including legal work by Martyn Measures and by local artists – see recent report on AudlemOnline and the two illustrations here. There has been a great increase in interest and other groups have come on-board.

Roland said that the parish council had been in on the project at the start and the APHAx committee was looking for a £20,000 contribution spread over a period of time.

He concluded by saying this was probably the largest community project in Audlem since the original hall was built in 1904 and the public hall committee itself was putting a lot of funding into the project itself.

Parish Council response

Later in the meeting, two members of the parish council's finance group – Cllrs Geoff Seddon and Dave Siddorns – presented budget and expenditure estimates and said that there had been extended discussion about the current resources and budget and the likely impact of the devolution of the Playing Field Complex.

The predicted annual running costs for the Playing Field Complex (along with reserving funds for repairs and renewals such as resurfacing the car park) are considerable, they said, and will undoubtedly impact on the future funds available for other community expenditure, particularly the amount allocated to grants, even if the precept is raised significantly.

It was agreed that, should the Playing Field Complex devolution proceed, the current budgeting trends would have to be re-aligned to ensure that the necessary increases of the precept are kept to a minimum. However, in spite of the anticipated significant change in the Parish Council's available resources, it was agreed that the Parish Council should support the APHAx project and therefore the following option was agreed:

The Parish Council undertake to grant £10,000 to the APHAx project and offer an interest free loan of up to £10,000 to be repaid over 5 years commencing once the Annexe has been completed.

Roland Hall responded saying that while they were disappointed that the council could not provide the whole of what they were asking for, he was grateful for the support offered.

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