Statement by the Public Hall Committee

Public Hall Committee and Trustees

The Public Hall Committee runs the Hall on a day-to-day basis, while the Trustees are the legally responsible group designated as the Trustees on the Charity Commission website. By and large it is the same people, but we are concentrating for the time being on getting a working Committee to carry through the significant changes to our working procedures we have recently had to put in place.

Committee members found it difficult to continue in our roles given the impact of Covid on individuals, and the increasing ill-health of some Members and volunteers which did lead to some difficult working relationships making day-to-day operations increasingly hard. We are trying to resolve these difficulties by employing people and contractors to undertake duties which we can no longer expect to be done on a voluntary basis, including caretaking and cleaning.

Legal advice is that, as Trustees of a Charity, we have an overriding legal duty of care to each other and to all volunteers to ensure that none of us should continue to undertake any duties which are prejudicial to our individual health and we must ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect. We were also advised that we would be in serious breach of this duty unless we put in place the changes we have now undertaken.

Geoff Stretch continues to support the Public Hall but with significantly reduced duties, including taking bookings for the snooker room, advising on building maintenance and continuing to work with us in helping with the transition into new arrangements.

Bookings and enquiries about the Town Hall and the Annexe (except for the snooker room) should now go through a single dedicated phone, 07361 826143 or by email to audlempublichall&gmail.com.

It is important for Trustees to confirm, following some recent negative comments to the contrary, that the Public Hall is a well-established charity which is led by experienced and hardworking members of our local community who have between them over 100 year's service to the Public Hall. Our charity is managed within all Charity Commission guidance. Recent changes have been based on expert legal advice, the advice of Cheshire East Community and Voluntary Services and in the best interests of the health of the people who have been running the hall. All our recent decisions have been taken so we can continue to discharge the objectives of the Public Hall Charity to serve the needs of the local community to which we are all committed.

The Public Hall is in a very sound financial position, due in no small part to the efforts put in by Geoff and Olive Stretch over 20 years.

AGM

The Committee's next objective is to hold an AGM, the date of which will be published in due course.

At the AGM, we hope and expect that other volunteers will come forward to offer to help run this very important village resource. Anyone interested in offering their help with this, should please email us at info@audlempublichall.org.uk

Management Committee of Audlem Public Hall
Roger Millns
John Tilling
Janet Morgan
Tony Richardson
Richard Furber
Ralph Warburton