The humble village hall is surprisingly well placed to be a catalyst for environmental action. Village Halls Week 2024, an annual initiative organised by Action for Communities in Rural England (ACRE), 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.
Find out more about the activities planned by community buildings and village halls in Surrey, which are supported by Surrey Community Action’s Community Buildings Administrator, this weekend by visiting the ACRE website: https://acre.org.uk/village-halls-week-2024-local-events/#:~:text=Find%20out%20what’s%20happening%20in,good%20work%20they%20are%20doing.