As many of you will have seen on social media we are dismayed and disheartened by Neston Town Council’s decision, made at the extraordinary meeting on 3rd December 2024, to refuse to approve NCYC’s request for a £60,000 grant to kickstart our campaign to raise £240,000 to replace the roof and antiquated heating system in order to save Neston Civic Hall. Our staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly over the last 3 years to honour the request of residents who asked us to take on the operation of the hall. Despite continual setbacks due to the constant roof leaks we were spurred on by the overwhelming support we received, in particular from a group of volunteers who have brought the hall back to life with their maintenance and decorating skills. Seeing the hall once again in use was wonderful.
The decision to approach Neston Town Council for a grant was not taken lightly. We had exhausted options for capital funding due to not having match funding and realistically we knew we would be unable to raise the £240,000 needed in the short time frame through fundraising alone. The grant would have strengthened our capital funding applications.
The refusal of support from Neston Town Council has left NCYC and residents devastated. The meeting on 3rd December demonstrated the Town Council’s complete disregard for the wishes of residents. The outcome of the funding request was clearly determined prior to the meeting. The views of the residents who presented at the meeting were clearly being demonstrably ignored, and any trust for Neston Town Council to listen and lead on the wishes of its residents, whom they represent, has been lost.
NCYC will be returning Neston Civic Hall to Cheshire West and Chester Council on 31st March 2025. We have had to decide on a date to close as we inevitably face further roof leaks, and it is unfair to those organisations, groups and individuals who have bookings to cancel without any warning.
NCYC will honour all bookings until this date and will be working with anyone with bookings after this date to find different ways of delivering their services to residents.
The fundraising campaign on JustGiving is currently paused and will be closed by 13th December, and any monies raised will be used to keep Neston Civic Hall going until it is returned to CW&C however we appreciate donors may not wish for their donation to be used for this so please get in touch if you would like your donation returned.
As always, we want to ensure complete transparency and we are aware of a number of questions raised on social media and directly to NCYC that we will address below, please get in touch if you have any further questions.
Why not fundraise for the £60,000?
We did launch a fundraising campaign to go alongside our request to Neston Town Council however we have had to close this campaign following Neston Town Council’s decision. We have to be realistic regarding the amount of time it would take to raise a substantial amount to use as match funding through donations alone. We are very much stuck between a rock and a hard place, we cannot apply for capital funding until we can demonstrate match funding, it usually takes a minimum of 12 weeks to get a decision on a funding application, and this is also dependent on when the funding rounds are open. We could continue to operate the hall whilst continuing with the fundraising campaign until we reach a point when we have another major roof leak at which point we would close the Civic but this would be unfair to leave organisations, groups and individuals with the potential of losing the venue with no warning.
What will CW&C do with Neston Civic Hall when they get it?
It is unknown what will happen to Neston Civic Hall when returned to CW&C however they have been clear about not having the funds to carry out the repair work at Neston Civic Hall. When Neston Civic Hall was returned to CW&C from Brio in 2021 they stated that they were not in a position to operate the Civic Hall using its existing resources.
Our intention was always to apply for funding to carry out the vital repair work and support the creation of a community benefit society. Once the Civic Hall was repaired, and therefore a viable business, the operation of the Civic would be passed to this society, ensuring it is managed by and remains in use by local residents. CW&C have been supportive of this plan, offering a long term lease as part of a community asset transfer, the rationale for the transfer would be to facilitate the building remaining available for community use.
NCYC’s concern is not only the impact on local organisations who use the hall when it closes, many of which have stated that they will no longer exist, but on the wider impact to the infrastructure of Neston. Residents will be forced to travel out of the area to see plays, attend events such as bingo, community cinema etc and the number of visitors to Neston will reduce. Over 800 people attended the week of performances from Neston Players, many visiting from out of area, these people ate in our local restaurants, drank in our local pubs and visited our local shops.
Is the issue repair costs or running costs?
Both of these issues are connected. The grant was to be used as match funding for applications to carry out vital repair work. NCYC are currently subsidising the day to day running costs of the Civic Hall. This is due to a number of factors:
The running costs are high, there is no insulation at all and the heating system is inadequate, when we do put the heating on it is immediately lost through the roof.
We cannot take larger bookings due to the constant risk of a large leak meaning we have to close the hall at last minute to carry out repairs and cancel bookings.
Due to the regular leaks we cannot guarantee to any hirer that their event / activity will not be affected, this, understandably puts people off from hiring the space.
The roof leaks frequently, it then takes us time to get the money together to carry out patch repairs (which don’t guarantee we don’t have further leaks), we have to cancel bookings due to the leaks which then means we don’t have any income to cover the running costs and the costs of the repairs.
This does not mean that the building doesn’t have the potential to be self-sustaining. If the repair work was carried out the running costs would be reduced, we could confidently take larger bookings and have the building open more frequently for community use.
Are there other funding options available?
We have approached other capital funders but as stated, they require cash match funding.
We have held our own fundraising events which has raised some money towards the campaign but not enough to use as match funding. We are also a small independent charity, our staff are responsible for the projects they are funded to run so we unfortunately don’t have the ability to utilize our staff’s time for other projects such as running fundraising events. We do what we can with many of our staff volunteering their free time to help, however we then face the issue of planning a large fundraising event to then have another leak putting the event in jeopardy. For anyone following us on social media you will be aware that this happened literally days before the sold out ‘When I’m 64’ event, I think all the staff team have several more grey hairs after that week!
Have you approached Paul McCartney?
We have sent letters and emails but as yet had no response, if anyone has direct contact information for him then please get in touch!
Why not continue with the fundraising campaign until March?
The purpose of the fundraising campaign was to raise the money needed to carry out repair work, we will not raise £240,000 by the end of March and therefore it wasn’t right to continue with the campaign when it wouldn’t be used for what it was created for. It would also be an administrative nightmare to have to contact all the donors to discuss returning their donations if the campaign was left open until we close the Civic Hall!
Did Neston Town Council really spend £13,000 on phone boxes?
Yes, they were restored for community use. Had Neston Town Council communicated with us, our volunteers would have been more than happy to undertake the work for nothing and the £13k could have been put to better use.
We will continue to keep you updated and thank you again for your unwavering support.
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