case study
Our Village Halls and Community Buildings Support Service is here to provide advice and help to Devon's community buildings, which provide such a vital service to their rural and coastal communities. One of the buildings we've recently supported is Teign Village Social and Sports Club.
Teign Village Social and Sports Club needed to change how they were working. They were running at a loss and the building was in a poor state of repair. The community had changed over the years, with the club originally having served the quarry community. The club has a bar and holds regular events such as quiz nights and family Fridays, including games and activities for children. There is a sports field and pavilion used by Teign Village Football Club. The club first approached us for support with their governance, including how to register as a CIC (community interest company), completing land registry paperwork and handling the process around deceased trustees.
To benefit from more of our support, the club became a member of Devon Communities Together, which meant that when they contacted us again for funding and financial resilience support, our team once again stepped into action.
A meeting was held to discuss prospective plans for the club. We discussed selling the old club and building a new one on the recreation field, or improving the old club by reconfiguring the interior, installing accessible toilets, replacing the roof and insulating the building. We advised that the local community should be consulted on the options proposed to ensure buy-in from local people. A consultation was held, after which the reconfiguration of the existing club was recommended.
"We had our consultation event in the social club on Saturday. It went well, I think, we had people talking about the club, about what they would like and got some useful feedback in the suggestion box. I took your advice by getting them involved with a visual display, so I had a notice board with various ideas about what we could have and they were asked to put stickers on the things that they would like, so that got people talking. Obviously this is only the beginning but it is a start."
We met again to talk through how to write a business plan, with our Community Buildings Advisor Su providing templates and guidance. We were also able to advise the committee around their idea of possibly converting the upper floor into an income-generating flat, and how that would demonstrate a move towards financial resilience that could attract further funding.
"Su - thanks for the email. It was so good to meet you this morning. You have given us lots of ideas and also very useful, practical advice. I feel very excited about the way forward now, whichever one of our two options we go with."