Village Hall and Playing Field News

March 2022

Brentor Parish Council is working with the Devon Air Ambulance to provide a floodlight at Brentor Playing Field. This will enable the field to be used at night for emergency helicopter landings. The lighting column will be 10m high with an LED floodlight at the top. It is planned to locate it at the edge of the field near the composting toilet. A power supply will need to be brought to the field and this will be a benefit for other purposes, such as village events at the field.

The planning application has been submitted to the Dartmoor National Park Authority and you can see it by clicking here. The deadline for comment on the planning application the deadline for this was 28th March 2022.

February 2022

The Brentor Village Hall and Playing Field Committee are looking into ways to minimise the damage from the Chafer Grub infestation that caused birds to damage areas of grass at the Playing Field last Autumn. The birds were searching for the grubs which caused the grass to be torn up.

The Committee has sought expert guidance and are considering the pros and cons of potential solutions. It has been estimated that treatment of the infestation and remedial work on the turf could cost £6000. The Committee has decided to take no action until next autumn and then revue the situation.

In the meantime they thank everyone for their patience but ask that dog owners STOP their pets scrabbling and digging holes at the field which is making the situation much worse and may have to result in all dogs being banned.

Once the Committee has more information they will inform the village of the choices available to resolve the issue.

Additionally please pick up after your dog. We have received complaints which we are looking into!!

Rebuilding the Village Hall

Brentor’s Village Hall and Playing Field Committee has been looking for ideas on how to move forward with rebuilding the main hall of the Village Hall, but the pandemic has put their plans on hold. The Village Hall and Playing Field is a registered charity, whose duty is to run the Village Hall and Playing Field for the benefit of our community.

Although the Hall was improved with a new kitchen, toilets and store in 2010, the old part of the building, dating from 1912, has significant problems with its fabric. About 20 villagers (including most of the Parish Council) went to the meeting earlier this year about future plans for the Hall and heard from Sheryl Burroughs, the Chair of the Committee, that a structural survey of the hall has revealed that the Hall’s outer cladding will need complete replacement. There is also a great need to address the condensation problem of the old building, relating to its lack of insulation. Click here to read the full Village Hall Structural survey.

The Village Hall and Playing Field Committee set up a sub-committee to progress the rebuilding of the main hall. It met in October 2020. Due to the large sum of money that will be needed to rebuild, it was clear that a substantial amount would need to be won from sources such as the National Lottery and previous funders of the village hall such as the Biffa landfill tax fund. Sadly the biggest potential funder, the National Lottery, is currently, and for the foreseeable future, only funding pandemic recovery projects .

Therefore the Committee has decided to put the work of rebuilding the hall on hold. Much of the background work has been done in planning for the rebuilding and there is substantial experience from the initial refurbishment of the hall done in 2010, so hopefully when the financial situation becomes more easy the project will be resurrected. Sheryl Burroughs assures the village that the idea of a rebuild has not gone away and the project will be resurrected in due course. She said that reasonable repairs have had to be done recently to improve the appearance of the hall frontage in order to continue to attract users to the hall - irrespective of the Committee’s long term aspirations. The cost (£3,500) was met from part of the covid grant given by WDBC.

Detailed structural survey of the Village Hall

Brentor Village Hall and Playing Field Committee have commissioned a detailed structural survey of the Village Hall to enable them to determine the future of the hall, which is showing signs of its 107 year age.
You can see the survey by clicking here.

Open meeting suggests the rebuilding of the Village Hall

Brentor’s Village Hall and Playing Field Committee has been looking for ideas on how to move forward with the Village Hall. They are a registered charity, whose duty is to run the Village Hall and Playing Field for the benefit of our community.Although the Hall was improved with a new kitchen, toilets and store in 2010, the old part of the building, dating from 1912, has significant problems with its fabric. About 20 villagers (including most of the Parish Council) went to the meeting about future plans for the Hall and heard from Sheryl Burroughs, the Chair of the Committee, that a structural survey of the hall has revealed that the Hall’s outer cladding will need complete replacement. This could apparently cost up to £30,000, and the Committee asked for suggestions on how the money could be raised. Click here to read the full Village Hall Structural survey.

However, members of the audience questioned the sense of spending so much money, only to end up with a building with the same problems as at present. As well as the issues with the cladding, they pointed out that there are problems with the floor structure, which will probably soon need replacing at considerable cost. Also the completely uninsulated nature of the building leads to condensation and mould growth on the inside walls. Due to the timber-frame construction of the building it is not possible to insulate the walls and roof within the structure, and the roof would not be strong enought to be insulated internally. A representative of Brentor Parish Council said that the Parish Council had discussed the issues of the Hall and would not support any proposals just to maintain the Hall as it is. It was said that Government regulations relating to the declared Climate Emergency would necessitate improving the environmental sustainability of the Hall if it is to remain open in the future. It was also pointed out that most grant-giving bodies these days rightly insist on building work improving the sustainability of the building being funded, so the likelihood of funds being available to maintain the status quo were therefore reduced.

Many attendees at the meeting expressed a great love for the Hall in its present form, but the meeting overwhelmingly came to the conclusion that it would be far wiser to attempt to rebuild the Hall, enabling it to be properly insulated and to improve the quality of its provision for our village. When the Hall was refurbished in 2010 with a new kitchen, toilets, store and disabled persons’ facilities, the grant applications were made on the understanding that this was phase 1 of the project, with the replacement of the main hall as a phase 2 for the future. The new build was constructed so that this could happen, and therefore only the hall would need to be replaced completely. It was suggested that, with careful design from a sympathetic architect, the new Hall would be able to preserve its current welcoming atmosphere and character.

There was also concern about closing the Hall for up to a year during the rebuilding period. However, when the Hall was closed in 2009/10 for the phase 1 rebuild, events such as the Mistletoe Fair were successfully held elsewhere in the village and the Brentorians created a film rather than a play. When the improved Hall reopened in 2010 there was a marked surge in bookings due to its much improved facilities. Now that the Hall owns a marquee this could be used on the playing field for larger events during the closure period.

A number of attendees at the meeting volunteered to help with fundraising for a hall rebuild, and at the end of the evening the Village Hall and Playing Field Committee agreed to discuss this matter at their next meeting and to progress this issue further in the near future – watch this space!

New shelter

A new public shelter has been installed on the playing field. It offers an excellent place to shelter during a rain shower and will certainly be welcomed by those using the field for sport and dog walking.

Compost toilet erected at the Playing Field

Thanks to a grant from the Communities Lottery, the Village Hall and Playing Field Committee has been able to install a compost toilet has been installed on the playing field.

It is currently locked as a path is due to be installed on 23 March. The toilet will then be open for the village to use and is suitable for disabled persons.

The toilet belongs to the village and we should all take responsibility for it, ensuring that we leave it as we find it. There is toilet paper and sanitizer in the toilet. Please use sparingly considering the current situation we are in relating to the coronavirus outbreak.

THE COMPOST TOILET CAN ONLY COMPOST NATURAL WASTE AND IT IS VITAL THAT ONLY TOILET PAPER BE PLACED DOWN THE TOILET.