A public meeting was held on 12th July at the Village Hall to explain why the trustees are proposing to set up a new charity to manage the Village Hall and hold the title to the property. The meeting agreed unanimously to proceed with incorporation.
Background
The Burnham Market and Norton Village Hall charity has been in existence for around 60 years. The current charity was set up, at the time the land was gifted, to run the village hall. The trustees, have taken advice from Community Action Norfolk on the legal status of the charity. While there is no particular problem in it continuing in its current form, there are advantages in replacing the charity with a new incorporated charity.
The two main advantages are that, firstly, the charity can hold property in its own name and, secondly, the trustees gain the protection of incorporation.
The new charity would act in exactly the same way as the existing one and there would be no change either to committee members or in the way that the hall or committee works. The village hall would have the same protections as it does currently in that the land upon which it is situated can only be used as a village hall and ancillary services.
The meeting gave the public a chance to hear from the trustees and to ask any questions that arise from the change.