Village Halls Week 2024 set to ‘go green!’
Phillip Vincent, ACRE’s Public Affairs and Communications Manager, blogs ahead of Village Halls Week which is set to return for the seventh year running and challenge community buildings to consider how they can save energy and support environmental initiatives that help with Net Zero.
With scientific warnings of the climate crisis mounting and governments and international institutions scrabbling in search of grand solutions, it’s easy to feel powerless to act in the face of great threats to our way of life, and that of future generations.
But as much as bold decisions are needed regarding the global management of the Earth’s resources and the carbon emitted into the atmosphere, little will happen unless there is action on the ground.
Rural communities have great potential to be pioneers in the local battle for Net Zero. This is likely to include adopting more sustainable agricultural practices, welcoming renewable energy generation, improving the energy efficiency of older buildings and reducing the need for people to travel by utilising digital technology. Mitigation too is needed to blunt the consequences of climate change such as flooding and wildfires.
Village halls, like parish councils, are one of very few institutions embedded in nearly every corner of rural England. Hosting a wide range of activities, events, groups, and services, they have great reach into communities. Many have been used as a place of refuge during extreme weather events. And as the Post Office Horizon scandal has recently brought to light, they are sometimes venues where radical community activism begins!
The humble village hall is therefore surprisingly well placed to be a catalyst for environmental action. Village Halls Week 2024 will consider how this can happen. It will look at what some halls are already doing to serve as inspiration, and it will provide an opportunity for others to hold events and reach out to residents to see what might work locally for them.
A highlight of this year’s campaign will be the publication of a Net Zero Design Guide for Village & Community Halls produced by stagg architects on behalf of ACRE.
Typically, village halls are older buildings which can be off the gas grid. Some date back over 100 years. Many have been vulnerable to energy price shocks over the past couple of years with some groups spending over half of their income keeping the building warm at the peak of the crisis.
On this basis, a logical, and much needed starting point for village hall groups interested in ‘going green’ is making improvements to their building to reduce the amount of energy they consume as well as their bills.
The guidance set to be launched via a livestream features several halls in Cumbria, Lancashire, Buckinghamshire, Dorset and Somerset which have done just that. Work undertaken by these halls include improving insulation, upgrading heating systems and even generating their own energy. They demonstrate that whilst there’s no one size fits all solution, there are many take home lessons from their experiences with regards to project planning, involving the wider community, fundraising, and working with technical experts and contractors.
Haddenham Village Hall
Haddenham Village Hall in Buckinghamshire was built in the 1960s and serves a population of about 5,000 people. It hosts an impressive range of activities for the benefit of the community including pilates, kickboxing, dance clubs, badminton, short mat bowls, repair clubs and toddler groups.
I went to visit the hall last November with Ben Stagg to learn about the improvements they had made to their building. On arrival, we were impressed with how busy the building was – so busy it was almost impossible to find a car parking space!
The group has undertaken extensive work over the past few years in an attempt to decarbonise their building. They have replaced their old gas-fired warm air unit with an air source heat pump which has re-used existing ducting, insulated the roof, installed solar panels and EV car charging points. The total cost of this work was nearly £100k and funded through a mix of grant funding, S106 money and the hall’s own fundraising.
The improvements have resulted in reduced energy bills and users of the hall we spoke to commented that the building was much more comfortable.
We were particularly interested to hear that the management committee has been flanked by a group called Zero Carbon Haddenham who were supportive of the improvements and run a longstanding repair club from the village hall.
Of course, making improvements to buildings isn’t the only way to ‘go green’. As such, Village Halls Week will also be about supporting behaviour change so people are encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle more. It will look at halls that are providing a space or working with other green groups in the community. And it will also consider how village halls lucky enough to have responsibility for outdoors space can make use of this to support food growing, wildlife and biodiversity.
Village halls are being encouraged to get involved with the campaign by holding open days and events and sharing their stories on social media. Interested groups have been sent a campaign pack including posters, badges bunting and other resources.
For more information about Village Halls Week, please visit: https://acre.org.uk/village-halls-week-2024/
A logical, and much needed starting point for village hall groups interested in ‘going green’ is making improvements to their building to reduce the amount of energy they consume as well as their bills.
Phillip Vincent, ACRE’s Public Affairs & Communications Manager
