Bramley Village Hall  Bringing People Together

Bramley Village Hall Trust: Business Plan 2025-2026

Bramley Village Hall Trust is a charity established to manage and support a community facility, the Village Hall (BVH or ‘the Hall’).  Our objectives are:

To provide and maintain a village hall for the use of the inhabitants of the Parish of Bramley, Hampshire without distinction of political, religious or other opinions. This should include its use for meetings, lectures and for other forms of recreation and leisure with the object of improving the conditions of life for inhabitants of the Parish.

[BVH Deed of Covenant, 1969]

In line with our strategic objectives (as set out in our Strategy Document) the Trustees will ensure that the Hall is available in a useable condition with appropriate amenities functioning to the required standard; we will ensure the Hall is maintained and repaired to meet Health and Safety requirements and that all necessary licensing and authorization requirements are met.

The Hall is used as follows:

• Regular groups using the Hall for their purposes include:
  • a village pre-school who meet daily;
  • organized community groups e.g. WI, Brownies, Rainbows, Guides, and Parish Council meetings;
  • commercial operators which run groups e.g. ballet classes, yoga, fitness classes; and
  • village groups who organize social activities e.g. Badminton, Short Mat Bowls.

• Annual events, such as the Bramley Show, that enable local people to showcase their products, skills and hobbies.

• Ad hoc events, such as private bookings for children’s and adult parties which provide a source of income for the Hall.

As a charity the Trustees will endeavour to ensure that the Hall generates sufficient funds to meet maintenance and service objectives and does not operate at a deficit. Whenever appropriate the Trustees will seek funding from the Parish Council and other providers to meet specific objectives.

The Trustees’ Annual Report for 2024-25 provides a summary of the key developments for the year.

Key Objectives for 2025-26

This business plan covers the Financial Year 2025-26, and our key objectives are as follows:

• Ensure the Hall is available to users in a clean and safe state and that reported defects are remedied as quickly as possible.
• We will continue to seek opportunities to attract new users, including the acceptance of some risk in supporting new start-up groups. Although the planned demise of one of our commercial hirers in December 2025 will have an impact on our income, we anticipate continuing growth in footfall. We remain confident that we have sufficient capacity available across all spaces at the Hall to meet the requirements of our users.
• To deal with repair and maintenance issues on a planned basis and flag-up long-term infrastructure issues. The key refurbishment project this year will be work arising from the roof survey: the roof of the main hall is in good condition although some remedial work to flashing is required; the sloping roof above the Bramley Room is in need of repair at its lower end; and a project to replace or upgrade the flat roof felting is under consideration. Grants from the Parish Council and other providers will ensure the delivery of these projects.
• We will maintain a healthy cash flow, reviewing hiring charges at least annually, seeking additional funding through grant applications and continue to maintain a strategic cash reserve to meet unanticipated issues.
• We will continue to identify opportunities for increased sustainability; the re-wilding of the grassed areas adjacent to the carpark will contribute to this, at the same time reducing our maintenance costs by removing the need for lawnmowing by contractors. We will continue to develop the role of volunteers in managing our external spaces.
• We will complete work to ensure that our networks across the Hall are compliant with Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) legislation; this work will enable us to sign off on a new policy for this area of our infrastructure.
• We will maintain a close liaison with the Parish Council over the planned development at Stock’s Farm and take appropriate steps to ensure that the Village Hall boundaries are protected, and that the development work does not impact on the Hall’s viability, security or sustainability.
• We will continue to promote the work of the Trustees with the aim of attracting additional volunteers and building resilience within the team. We greatly appreciate the time and energy expended by those volunteers engaged in the ‘Ground Force’ and we will encourage more individuals to offer their support by volunteering for garden work or maintenance projects at the hall. We will explore additional volunteer and financial support from the local Private sector, particularly in the context of some of our maintenance projects.
• In addition, we remain supportive of the concept of the ‘Young Trustee’ and would welcome expressions of interest in this scheme from persons aged 17-24.

Date of Approval: 9 April 2025

Date of Next Review: April 2026