News from the Village Hall & Cinema
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News from the Village Hall & Cinema |
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Dear Visitor,We are excited to advise that subject to Covid restrictions and viability we hope to re-open the cinema from Friday 17th September 2021. As so many movies are not being currently released via DVD it is likely that initially we will open once a month as opposed to our normal once a fortnight. Our film selection committee are scouring the releases. The projectionists are booked in for refresher training. All the other volunteers for the bar, the tea and cakes and the box office are eager to return. We will send out further newsletters to give you an update and advise when tickets will be on sale.  How you can help us..... The Chiddingfold Village Hall cinema is run entirely by volunteers with all profits going to the upkeep, maintenance and improvement of the Village Hall. The village hall is funded largely by lettings income. No grant support is received from the parish or borough councils. Annual operating costs are c.£35-40k and are barely covered by the income. Profits from the village cinema have generally been set aside to support new projects/replacement facilities – though in 2019/20 the profits were spent on replacing much of the video/audio system to allow our popular cinema nights to continue. Closure due to COVID has had a severe impact on the charity’s income in the last year whilst many of the operating costs continued. The current village hall was built in 1993/4 to replace the one built after the First World War. It was funded by the sale of part of the original site for development. Whilst the structure remains sound, many of the facilities within the hall are more than 27 years old and urgently require replacement. One major facility that we are currently fundraising to replace this Summer is the kitchen which is old, domestic quality kitchen is both poorly designed and well beyond its useable life. Recently the existing range and ventilation have been condemned on safety grounds – therefore, until replaced, there is no operational kitchen. This hampers our ability to market the hall for uses such as sales, private parties and weddings.  The Trustees aim to replace the kitchen with a modern, semi-commercial kitchen, including new equipment which meets current safety standards. 3 quotations have been received. The likely cost is £45-50k but there is only £20k in the kitchen reserve funds. The Trustees are actively investigating potential sources for grant funding however these normally take time to secure which is incompatible with the urgency to replace the kitchen. We are therefore looking to raise £10k from within the community and £20k via a loan, ideally by end-July to allow the work to be undertaken this summer. We have set up a JustGiving page to raise the £10k needed to carry out this work in August, and we are delighted that we are already almost half-way there. Your help and generosity would be appreciated:  We are also able to accept cheques made payable to 'The Chiddingfold Village Hall & Recreation Ground Charity' which can be posted or dropped off at the Village Hall. We look forward to seeing you soon. Valissa Burnett & all the Chiddingfold Cinema volunteers x |
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