IMPORTANT NEWS FOR ALL USERS OF THE TOWN HALL

‘BUSINESS AS USUAL' _ PRICES HELD UNTIL 2014

By hiring the Town Hall you will now be investing in its future

The repair and refurbishment of the Town Hall is progressing very satisfactorily.  I hope that the disruption is minimal for you; as far as possible it is ‘Business as Usual’.  But if you have any concerns or issues, please let us know, and we will do what we can.

I thought it was worth telling you about our future plans over the coming months.  The capital programme is due to be completed in October, with a formal hand-over date from the Contractors aimed at October 5^th.  We have blocked out a period of a few weeks in August – September when the kitchen will be refurbished: there are no coffee mornings booked during that time, but the main hall will still be available as long as the kitchen facilities are not required.  We have installed wifi into the Hall so that groups can take advantage of accessing on-line services if appropriate.  We are establishing the procedures for groups to use this service.

Our charges during April 2013 - March 2014 remain the same as last year.  This reflects the fact that there is some disruption during the year; and it also gives us a chance to ‘take stock’ of our income and expenditure for the year.  It is great to see that bookings are already increasing, but equally we have increased expenditure since we have taken over management of the Hall.  The main issue for us is that we have to pay VAT on all bookings.  We are absorbing those costs this year, but will have to review our position for next year.  We have also to take on Performing Rights Society costs for having live and recorded music in the Hall, but have decided not to pass on those costs to users, since it is often seen as an unfair charge.

We will be reviewing charges for 2014/15 later in the year, but will be announcing them by the beginning of January 2014, so that there is plenty of notice before they come into effect in April.  As part of that review we will be looking at the option of offering discounts for multiple bookings of the Hall.  Await further news!

It is an exciting time for the Trust, and we hope to see further developments as and when we having the necessary funding.  The more that the Hall is used, then the more that can be achieved, and the lower the costs can be.  We will have a Community Engagement Officer working for us during the latter half of the year to ensure that we are making the most of the Hall for the Community.

You can keep up to date with developments by going to our website, or by logging on to our blog:  http://www.moffattownhall.blogspot.co.uk as you have done today.   Please let us know if you have any suggestions or queries.

Yours sincerely,Peter Beck-Samuels

ROOF WORKS

I mentioned in yesterday's blog that I had noticed work taking place on part of the Town Hall roof.  Here's a photograph:

If you look to the rear of the building you can see a straight line piece of tarpaulin and then a pitched roof with tarpaulin.  Under the straight line is the long corridor off of which are the toilets.  The pitched room is the library.  Both these areas suffered additional damage during the 2012/13 winter gales.  Not there when I actually clicked for the photo to take, but there was a Southwest Roofing workman going up and down the ladder working on the pitched roof yesterday afternoon.

It's unfortunate that it's not possible to tell from the photo, but it was a very bright and sunny blue-sky afternoon with fluffy white clouds!

Fathomed it out !

Here is the promised photograph of the Town Hall now under repair.  I noticed yesterday evening that large areas of the roof are now under tarpaulin and the roofing company are busy with the necessary work.

Building action at the Town Hall

It's great to see action at the Town Hall - scaffolding up, builders' vans around the place, etc.  The people in charge of the site appear to be working happily in their office under the stage.

I had hoped to include some photographs I recently took to show the Town Hall in its state of being worked upon with scaffolding and protective wrapping over it.  Unfortunately, I just cannot figure out how to transfer the photographs I took on my new Android phone onto my computer to be able to attach them here!  I have tried USB connection and emailing, but I can achieve nothing at all !!

When I've spoken to someone with the same phone who has figured out these matters, the photographs will appear!!  Watch this space !