still no village hall decision from Southdowns planning– Updated 17th October 2024

(Much to my surprise, within a week of posting this article, SDNP finally approved outline permission for the New Village Hall!)

First, for any of those new residents who may not be aware of the story so far, a brief recap of the long running “Farringdon Village Hall Saga”.

In 2013, a couple of years before Massey’s Folly was sold for development, the Farringdon Parish Council were appointed as the sole trustee of the Farringdon Village Hall Charitable Trust. This transfer of trusteeship was put in place to protect the previous trustees from any financial responsibility should an official notice be issued requiring full restoration of the Grade2 listed building, part of which was then used as the Village Hall.

The building was sold for development in 2015 and, after establishing a need for a new public space in the village, several plans were put forward by then FVHC to use the proceeds of the sale to provide a new Village Hall.

The original intention was to utilise space in the Church yard but this plan had to be abandoned following a tree survey which indicated that there was insufficient clear space to accommodate a new building and no trees could be cleared or replaced to accommodate the structure.

Following this initial setback, the first project presented for public consultation, was to construct a new Village Community Centre on the grass area to the west of the Church Yard. Although this project was well supported, the South Downs National Park Planning Authority put a spanner in the works when they refused permission to build on the site proposed.

Other sites were considered by the FVHT for the new Hall. A brown field site was discussed but abandoned on grounds of cost and provisional planning permission was obtained for a site on the South side of Shirnall Hill but the FVHT were unable to reach an agreement with the landowners. Other potential sites were also investigated but were dismissed for variety of reasons.

In 2020, Farringdon Parish Council/Village Hall Trust Chairman, Clive Elderton and Vice Chairman Peter Durrant, both of whom been instrumental in negotiations up to this point, resigned, and not long after for various reasons, the resignation of Nadine Farris the newly appointed Vice Chair and Tony Batley standing down as Chairman.

By 2022 David Horton was Council Chair with David Craig as Vice Chair and, after much confusion and considerable argument as to the suitability of their proposed plan, a referendum, (that was then declared "not a referendum", as a small majority voted against the proposed Hall plan) and much disagreement, that design was eventually put forward as a planning application, SDNP/22/01621/FUL, on a site on the A32, just North of the Royal Oak (then the Golden Pheasant)

Since the application was made, various wildlife surveys etc were carried out, a new Independent Village Hall Charity Committee was set up and Tony Batley rejoined the Parish Council and is now Vice Chair and responsible for the relationship between The Village Hall Charity and the Parish Council.

Earlier this year, The New Village Hall Charity purchased the village hall site, as their option to purchase expired in April of this year. and they also put forward a mucn amended Village Hall Plan with a slightly smaller hall (now seating 112 with this layout) and other required spaces but in the same position towards the western end of the site. (see below)

So far there has been no decision from the planning authority as the person responsible has been "unavailable" although there is hope that the modified plans might be acceptable as a more realistic design for the building

(N.B. Outline Permission has finally been granted less than a week after this article was posted!)

However, assuming permission is granted there is still the problem of raising Funds to build the New Farringdon Village Hall as it will still require a considerable sum to landscape the area, lay down the roads and hard surfaces for access and parking, level off the site and construct the new Village Hall.

The Parish Council have some funds that were set aside (currently on the move as the Council are reorganising their account system) and we were told originally the major part of the cost would be met by grants.

However, District and County Councils are struggling to maintain funding for essential services and most grants require a comparable amount of funding from the applicant so there will be a formidable fundraising effort under way assuming the design is accepted and the cost will be considerable even with a smaller and more realistic layout.