Are our town's community halls being under used?

Town councillors are aiming to increase the use of community halls and spaces in Newtown.

The council has undertake some survey work as part of a project to support community halls in the town and other spaces that are used by community groups and organisations.

The project will report to a meeting of the town council's Strategy and Corporate Projects Committee this evening (Weds).

It has emerged that Treowen Community Hall is at 100 per cent use, while Northside Community Centre is only operating at 50 per cent. Newtown Jubilee Scout Hall is at just 10 per cent along with Mill Close Community Hall.

The committee will examine the results and what action the town council can take to support greater use of the facilities.

The report states: "The Town Council remains committed to providing and or supporting the best possible facilities and services for the people of Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn. One such provision the council has identified in its 5- year plan, is community halls / spaces.

"Undertake further audit work to identify any issues or gaps in provision of community
halls, are they accessible, of adequate quality and promoted sufficiently?"

It added: "To do this, we have set ourselves 5 key objectives (see below). Via survey we asked all local community halls and meeting spaces to complete questions."

These included: 

• Identify the current provision.
• Identify the current and future need.
• Identify the legal status of the current provision.
• Identify the current management structure.
• Identify future and current funding.

The survey also took into consdieration private, charity and other spaces including Newtown Library, The Elephant and Castle, Dolerw Hall, Hope Church, Hafren Theatre, All Saints Church, Cresent Christian Centre, Hafan yr Afon, Maldwyn Leisure Centre, and Oriel Davies Gallery.

The committee will discuss what can be done to help support the marketing of those facilities underused and report back to the full council.