The first Scout Hall was in what is now the Drill Hall and was replaced by the one below in the 1960's Interestingly, Cameron MacLean, who helped us with the joinery, waqs also involved in building the Hall below
The existing Scout and Guide Hall that we all use, is coming quite rapidly to the end of its usable life, mainly because its a wooden building with inadequate ventilation, heating, damp and woodworm. It has been well used in its 40 year life and many members of our community have used it at some point in their lives. Remedial measures are being taken, but the decline in the hall is working directly against the needs of us all.
The origional Scout Hall
On some nights during the winter we are not able to operate, because even with all the heaters in the hall on, its still not possible to keep warm. This particularly works against the usage by the more vulnerable younger and senior citizens groups. The other problem is that the funds required to heat and pre heat the hall with very expensive overhead heaters, normally goes beyond the subs levied, therefor making a loss. We can’t afford to operate at a loss, as our insurance and other overheads are quite heavy and also any surplus funds need to be directed to our fundraising project of a re build.
We would love to offer the Hall for low cost accommodation for visiting groups, but the toilets are inadequate and we don’t have shower etc. Our kitchen is also not of a high enough standard to cope with visitors cooking numbers of meals.
We accept the financial realities of current funding streams and don’t just sit there wringing our hands. We are continuously repairing our facilities. The hall normally manages to freeze up during the winter, even though we drain the system. We have installed a ‘new’ kitchen, donated by a local person bringing their own kitchen up to date. All of the work carried out is by volunteer parents and leaders.
The fact remains that the deterioration of the hall is proceeding faster than we can fix it. Hence we are furiously fundraising to replace the hall to ensure a continuity for all our users. See the side links for our progress to date…..