‘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
5th. 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
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