The immediate goal is to confirm the communities need for a village hall by completing a Business Case and Feasibility Study, with the ultimate goal of hall refurbishment or rebuild.
Estimated Price
18000
1.We wish to secure funding for a Feasibility Study and Business Case Study in order to progress towards providing a fit for purpose hall for the community of Nether Lochaber. The village hall committee is focused on rebuilding or refurbishing our hall, and as a step along this journey, these studies will capture the views of the community as a whole, and provide, we believe, the hall committee with a clear remit moving towards the rebuild or refurbishment.
2.Completing the Feasibility Study and Business Case will capture the views from right across Nether Lochaber, and illustrate clearly the level of support for the project and its economic viability moving forward. The current village hall was reluctantly closed to the public in 2024 due to multiple concerns, such as the mouldy, drooping ceiling plaster, poorly accessible and dilapidated toilet facilities, vermin issues in the damp kitchen and uneven springy areas of flooring due to rotting joists. The external aspect of the building is also very poor, and given its prominent position adjacent to the main road in the middle of the community.
Our original village hall was built somewhere around the start of the last century, and is one of the few ‘Tin Tabernacle’ style buildings left in Scotland, clad throughout in corrugated iron. As such it has drawn great attention from travellers passing by on the A82. We wish to either refurbish the hall or rebuild it in keeping with the original hall’s character.
Some limited community events are organised by the committee in Onich Church Hall, but this hall is too small for many of the activities once held regularly in the village hall. We are wholly confident that the majority of the community are very much in favour of having a fully functioning community hall, fit for the current century.
In terms of the Area Place Plan, our overall project goals align in a number of ways. Looking at the “People” priority within the APP, there is alignment between our goals insofar as we want to create a safe social and recreational space at the heart of the community, which we hope will attract and keep young people and families in the area, as well as providing a low-cost hall for the purposes of social engagement for every resident regardless of age and physical disabilities. Our project also has crossover with the “Place” priority within the APP of ultimately leading to visual enhancement of dilapidated building which has very high visibility from the A82 Trunk road.
3.The old hall served the ~540 people of Nether Lochaber in diverse ways, and we believe a replacement hall will do the same. Additionally, with improved energy efficiency, insulation and accessibility, usage will likely increase. In a long, stretched out community like ours, it is important to have a centrally placed indoor space where people can gather at a nominal cost, which is in effect their own. A village hall, through the provision of a wide variety of activities, encourages engagement and resilience, improving the built environment of the villages, (our current hall is dilapidated), and boosting community resilience. Communities in the Highlands need to find ways to attract and retain families and young people in the area, and an inexpensive, and attractive communal area can only assist in this aim.
Past activities included:
Produce shows Coffee Mornings Soup and sandwich lunches
Kids Christmas Party Christmas/Hogmanay Ceilidhs Kids Scottish country dancing classes
Karate Classes Community Council Meetings Community Led exhibitions
Craft and produce sales Sowing Group First Aid courses
Whist Drives Community Consultations Seniors Scottish country dancing
Private functions/gatherings Badminton classes Arts and crafts classes
4.Since a revitalized village hall committee formed in 2023 a number of important steps have been taken towards the goal of providing fit for purpose hall for Nether Lochaber:
Reinstating NLVH as a charity after charitable status lapsed in 2012. (Initially as a Single tier SCIO).
Hold well attended annual AGMs and a special meeting to discuss hall’s future.
Detailed interior and exterior survey of the hall including drainage.
Ascertained ownership of the building and the associated adjoining land.
Employed lawyers and received funding for the legal transfer of the hall to the village hall committee trustees. (Now Complete)
Moved the SCIO from a single tier to a two structure to better show the level of community support, and to give the community ‘ownership’ of the hall project.
Held competitive tendering for the Business Case and Feasibility Study, ultimately choosing two Highland companies to carry out the work-scope. Funding still being sought.
Despite the lack of a suitable village hall, we have, with the help of volunteers, continued with fund raising efforts:
Monthly soup and sandwich events have raised ~£2,300 towards hall funds over the last year, with 35- 40 people catered for on average. Community engagement with these monthly events has been excellent, with people from outwith the immediate area attending regularly. These events have already become something of a fixture within the wider community, despite being limited somewhat in size due to the smaller church hall we are using.
A raffle run to generate funds raised £2,768 after costs, with individuals and Lochaber businesses generously gifting excellent items for the prize draw.
We have also benefitted from excellent support from local professionals and from the Newtonmore Heritage Museum, who have past experience dealing with heritage corrugated iron ‘Tin Tabernacle’ building and restoration:
A local architect gave generously of his time, outlining how our project could proceed, confirming the suitability of visibility splays for the hall, explaining the planning process and providing some drawings which might give a sense of what a fit for purpose might look like.
A local surveyor took a detailed look at our old hall, inside and out, and provided the hall committee with a detailed report outlining some of the challenges ahead, and estimating costs moving forward. (Survey attached).
Newtonmore Heritage Museum has been very supportive of our aims. Over several visits and meetings they have offered recommendations on many aspects of our project, and carried out a survey of the hall which they have kindly shared with the hall committee. (Survey attached).
Angus MacDonald MP attended one of our monthly village meetings and expressed interest in our old hall and broad support for our aims.
Andrew Baxter, Highland Councillor, attended a village hall meeting and offered support, encouragement and advice for our aims.
Informal contact with the local planning department suggested that there would be few objections to a new or refurbished village hall located on the same footprint of the old hall.
Several Letters of support have been received, including one from musician James Macintosh of “Shooglenifty” who had enjoyed playing in our old hall, and looks forward to playing in our new hall when we achieve that.
Since converting to a two tier SCIO model, we are receiving great demand from the community to join the charity as Members. We also have interest from many people from outwith the immediate community signing on as associate members.
5.We anticipate that once funding is in place we could complete the Feasibility and Business Case Studies within 4 months.
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