Supporting Village Halls and Community Buildings throughout Berkshire

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We provide a specialist Community Buildings Advice Service (CBAS) to members that give unique support to volunteer village hall & Community Building trustees/ management committees.

This bespoke service is mostly funded by the CBAS members paying for an annual subscription with additional funding to lower the fee for halls in Wokingham Borough from Wokingham Borough Council. A grant was also received from Peter Samuel Charitable Trust.


In 2022-23 we were able to deliver the following to our CBAS Membership;

  • Answer 161 requests for guidance from members that included a variety of questions/issues from gas safety, CCTV policies, online book systems, jubilee celebrations, banking issues, concerns over Trustees’ behaviour and much more.

A Village Hall in West Berkshire called our CBAS Advisor Kate extremely concerned as their latest insurance premium quote had increased by a whopping 40% compared to the previous year. Kate delved into this and contacted some reputable Village Hall insurance specialists. As a result of Kate’s research, the Village Hall got a much better deal and was able to reduce it by £200 compared to the previous year – a much better outcome than a 40% increase!

  • We offer our members free access to Basecamp – a digital platform that allows sharing and a discussion platform that contains case studies and key supporting documents. Discussion on this platform over the last year included sharing recommendations for baby change units and structural engineers, how to procure contractors, setting up Warm and Digital Hubs, and insurance for bouncy castle events.
  • Kate arranged and delivered a range of useful training workshops including;
    o Digital Savvy Village Halls
    o Hallmark 2 Wokingham
    o Hallmark 2 West Berkshire
    o Low Carbon Village Halls
    o Environmental Policy & Audit
    o Trustee Training
    o Energy saving
    o Hallmark Level 1
    o Funding (inc. Platinum Jubilee fund)
    o Dementia-Friendly Village Halls
    o Social Media for village halls
  • The service also provided proactive information and advice by distributing information on matters of interest and funding opportunities in e-newsletters every other month.
  • To represent our CBAS members Kate attended West Berkshire Council Community Energy subgroup, & Wokingham Borough Council Climate Change Partnership meetings. Kate collaborates with 38 other advisors across England to share knowledge, understand issues and find solutions. In turn, all 38 advisors in England attend an annual conference spearheaded by our national body Action with Communities in Rural England.

Jacob from a Berkshire Village Hall

“In terms of support, Kate Meads was instrumental in helping to navigate an extremely tumultuous time. Kate was extremely quick to respond to calls and emails, never treated a question as stupid (though I’m sure some were) and always took the time to provide thorough, well-thought-out, insightful and helpful advice and/or guidance. I’m happy to say our hall is now a thriving, buzzing hub for our community and a lot of that is down to support Kate gave me and the committee, to empower us and help us to make good decisions. Our community is certainly better off thanks to her involvement.”

Linda Gale, Trustee from Spencer’s Wood Village Hall

The management committee at Spencers Wood Village Hall has benefitted enormously from our membership of Community Buildings Advice Service both before Covid lockdown and more especially since, when the task of picking up the pieces has been difficult for most community buildings management groups.

Kate Meads and her team at CCB have always been a great source of information and advice whenever the committee has sought clarification on various management issues including Personnel management, Health & Safety, Utilities guidance, Energy efficiency, Trustee responsibilities, Fundraising and Grant opportunities, PR and Social Media, and general law and community issues.

Through our membership of CCB’s Community Buildings Advice Service they have been able to offer training to committee members, both face to face and online, which has been very helpful, sometimes showing how other village halls are managed and other times providing more in-depth knowledge and insight into the many management areas that the committee has responsibility for. The scheme for Hallmark accreditation has been particularly enlightening.

On a more personal note, Kate and her team have always been receptive to the concerns of individual members of the committee, showing depth of empathy and understanding, and always confidentiality. In short, I believe the service provided is essential to support the various volunteers managing community buildings.

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