Farringdon Village Hall Trust Meeting - Wed 8th Nov at 7pm in All Saints Church
Residents welcome - Questions can be asked on the Night
Currently, the Charitable Trust is managed by the Farringdon Parish Council, who took over control to protect the previous Committee members from responsiibility for any major financial demands for restoration repairs of the listed building.
Since that change, the introduction of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) trust in 2013, enabled Charities could obtain Corporate (Limited Liability) Status and register with the Charity Commission. The Trust took legal advice and was recommended to form a new Association/Membership model.
In April 2023, the Parish Council () set up a small Management Committee of 3, with John Hustler as Treasurer, John Constable as Secretary and Andy Clegg as the Parish Council Representative. These three were entrusted to apply to the Charity Commission to set up a CIO by means of the key documents, using Charity Commission Templates.
Once these formalities were completed: the Current Committee would agree to dissolve and, all assets, liabilities and undertaking of the Charity transferred at no cost, to the new CIO Charity which would enter an agreement to give effect to this Transfer with the New CIO.
When this transfer is approved by the Charity Commission all residents of Farringdon will be invited to become a member with debts to the new organisation limited to £1.
Seven Trustees will be created, initially including the current Secretary, Treasurer and Parish Council Representative and four other Elected Farringdon Members. At the end of the First Year and at Annual General Meetings, all Trustees would be subject to re-election.
This process is under way and the new CIO will, sometime in the near future, take over the administration and management of the new CIO Charity once the financial accounts have been approved by the Charity Commission.
This needs to happen fairly soon as (assuming the Current Planning Application is passed) the option for the Farringdon Village Hall Charity to purchase the site ends on 24th April 2024.
Many Farringdon residents were concerned about the size, cost and current layout of the New Village Hall in the current Planning Application and it seems that the new organisation will review and possibly modify the existing planned structure to meet those concerns
The Official Result of the 2022 Yes/No Referendum?? on the New Village Hall Plans
for the site adjacent to the A32 are shown below.

The Trust have,
as promised, now published their 31 page business plan
which
is available to
download in pdf format
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Latest Trust Newsletter No 5 April 2022
November Newsletter 04 Newsletter 03 - Newsletter 02 - Newsletter 01
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The 2020 Annual General Meeting of the Trust was held on Wed 4th May 2020
Farringdon Village Hall
Charitable - Trust Meeting Held
Wednesday July 3rd 2019 Key Messages
Farringdon Village Hall Charitable Trust - Meeting Held Wednesday 15th May 2019 - Key Messages
Reports and/or key messages from Farringdon Village Hall Charitable Trust meetings can also be found on the archive page
Planning Application.
The New Farringdon Village Hall moves on another step with submission of an application to the Southdowns Park giving more details of the building and general layout of the site North of the Golden Pheasant on the A32 Gosport Road.
The application documents can be viewed by entering the appliication ref: SDNP/21/05756/PRE into the search box on the SDNP Planning Portal ()
The Background Story
Following the sale of Massey's Folly in 2015, Farringdon was without a village hall and although some events have been transferred to the Church, space is limited and the Church lacks the facilities that were available in the Folly.
However the Village Hall Trust are committed to constructing a new, purpose-built, village hall using funds accumulated from the sale of the Folly and various grants and such contributions as can be extracted from the residents of Farringdon.
Initial negotiations to buy a plot of land fell through and a tree survey of the Churchyard established there was insufficient tree free space to site a new Hall in the Churchyard.
Undaunted, the Farringdon Village Hall Trust submitted an outline planning application for a "Community Building" on a site in the centre of the village adjacent to Shirnall Hill.
Although the planning application was successful, negotiations to purchase the land fell through and the trust then put forward a revised plan on land owned by, and adjacent to, All Saints Church.
It soon became apparent that the South Downs National Park would block any application for a building to be constructed on this site and yet another plan fell by the wayside
Attention is now directed to a vacant site on the Western side of the A32 Gosport Road just next to the Golden Pheasant pub ().
The FVHCT is currently in negotiation with the various parties involved, in the hope that an agreement and the necessary approvals can be obtained to permit a New Village Hall to be erected on this site in the not too far distant future.
The completion of the project project can only be achieved if everything proceeding to plan and there have been a lot of 'ifs' in the various schemes so far..
When the situation allows, the Village Hall Trust are planning to hold a public consultation meeting later this year.
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