Contribution by Wendy Dacey

Comment by: Wendy Dacey

Focus area: Volunteer events

Regulator concerned: My comments are general and do not relate to a particular regulator or regulatory function

Comment:
I work for a Rural Community Council ( a registered charity) as the community buildings adviser. Most of the volunteers I work with that run community buildings (generally village halls) are charity trustees, responsible for public buildings. Whilst I accept that some red tape is required to make sure the buildings are safe to use, sometimes this is excessive and advice from local authorities can be contradictary -especially concerning fire safety.
Another issue is the need for PRs and PPL licences which covers music played in village halls. Halls are expected to have both licences and are chargd 1% of their annual income (over £10,000), regardless as to how much music is played. So a hall which derives a lot of income from dog trianign classes where no music is played, will have this counted towards their fee. In other cases, halls are double charged as a keep fit teacher will have their own PPL licence but the hall has to pay as well. Hall income is generally only derived from lettings and so there is little extra money to pay extra costs.