Falkirk community hall trustees look for more volunteers

The volunteers who have taken over management of Bainsford Community Hall hope the new look will be unveiled before Christmas.

The building work will transform a meeting room into a charity shop alongside a new community cafe – and the committee can’t wait for people to see the final results.

It’s an exciting time for the small group of volunteers who took over the management of the Davids Loan hall from Falkirk Council in June 2022.

Since then, they have seen usage growing rapidly – including for private parties which are now on most weekends – and they are getting more enquiries every day.

The building work is being funded by Falkirk Council’s Community Choices, after the project won enough support in the vote for funding.

And they hope to be just as successful in finding funding for a new air source heating system to replace the hugely expensive electric heating system currently in place.

Planning permission for a new heating system has now been granted and the community hall’s chairperson, Joanne Fox, says getting it in place is vital to the centre’s future.

“The only way to make the hall viable is to reduce our heating costs. We think it is at least 40 years since the heating was replaced,” she said. “It’s incredibly expensive and we think the new one will cut costs by around 80 per cent.”

Harry Johnston explained: “At the moment, when we have bingo on in the evening or in the afternoon, we need to put the heating on hours before the event because it takes so long to warm up.”

It’s been four long years since the volunteers first decided they wanted to save the hall from certain closure.

They are still negotiating a Community Asset Transfer (CAT) with Falkirk Council and slow progress had made them doubt it would ever happen.

But they’ve been very encouraged in recent weeks by the support they are now getting from council officers. And they have also been heartened by the response from the community, when asked to comment to support the application for an asset transfer.

Their statements left no doubt that the increasingly busy hall is much-needed by the community of Bainsford.

But the heating system is not the only change needed. The toilets are also desperately in need of an upgrade and they hope to apply to Falkirk Council’s latest round of Community Choices for more funding.

Joanne says they want to work with other groups in Falkirk North ward who also intend to apply for funding and they would like to hear from other charities and organisations who are considering applying.

They are also hoping that more volunteers will come forward to help them keep the centre running smoothly.

On Wednesday, November 22, the hall committee has its AGM and they would love to see more people come along to the meeting which starts at 7 pm.

Joanne said: “Please come along if you go to a group, run a group, have an idea, or want to know anything about what goes on here.”