The Public Hall comes back to life

Refurbished Main Hall ready for Parish Council meeting

After a difficult year the Town Hall and Annexe are coming back to life slowly.

ADCA have been using the Annexe as an operational HQ for their services throughout the pandemic, but apart from occasional use of the Medical Room there has been very little else going on.

The Community Gym has been kept going in a limited fashion in fits and starts, and will remain at this level at least until the end of June.

Town Hall Refurbishment

As the Town Hall was having to close anyway during the pandemic, the Committee took advantage of the situation to undergo a major refurbishment programme.

The refurbishment has been carried out by East Midlands Solutions (who have been involved in several recent village projects) and by Rob Brooks who has more or less single-handedly painted the entire place.

This has included putting in a lot of insulation, especially on the high ceiling of the Main Hall, and renewing old radiators. Also we were required to upgrade the fire safety aspects, both for fire protection and a full alarm system. All this work is now complete, together with a complete redecoration of all the Town Hall rooms, including the Committee room and the snooker room.

This has all cost a very pretty penny, paid for out of the reserves carefully accumulated over the years, plus a generous contribution from the Parish Council. The downside is that this expenditure has of course coincided with a period of very reduced income for the Hall.

But the Town Hall now looks brilliant!

Open for Business

So now the Hall is open for business, within the limits still imposed by Government pandemic regulations.

Perhaps fittingly, the first real event was a Parish Council meeting early in May (see picture).

And now the Hall has been established as a Lateral Flow Testing centre for the next few Wednesdays.

At last some of the regular events can cautiously start up again – the ladies tabletennis and the badminton have started, and the snooker room is available for use. We expect that the other established village organisations that make regular use of the Hall will gradually resume their activities over the coming months.

In the Annexe, the Audlem Theatre Group will be starting up soon, and ADCA will hope to resume their more normal pattern of activities.

A crisis for the Public Hall

And after all the relatively good news about the Public Hall comes the sting in the tail....

The Committee that runs the Hall has been seriously depleted over the last year or two, for health and other reasons, and those who are left, try as they might., are not actually getting any younger. We desperately need new blood to help run the place and share some of the administrative load.

Perhaps we should appeal particularly to some of the newer residents in the village, who might, at least in part, have come to live in Audlem because "there is so much going on".

If there is no Public Hall there will be nowhere for many of these activities to happen.

If you think you might be able to help, please use the contact form here on the Public Hall website – we will be delighted to hear from you and discuss the possibilities.