Try and say “Hello Criggy Haas, Humber and Wolds Rural Community Council” fast ten times. Not easy. Now try and say it with a New Zealand accent, and try to be understood in the heart of Yorkshire. Nay impossible. And yet this is what I have been doing since graduating from the CHE Masters a little over 18 months ago.

I have been a village hall adviser for the Humber and Wolds Rural Community Council (HWRCC), working on its “Village Halls Sustainability Project.” HWRCC works in the the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire, which includes around 260 Rural Community Buildings (RCBs).

Its Village Halls Service provides free general governance and management advice to any management committee that request it, however this specific project (and my role) was to help village hall management committees improve the sustainability of their hall by identifying and putting in place building improvements to lower energy use and increase accessibility. These improvements reduce running costs and ensure the building is fit-for-purpose, that it is warm, comfortable, and can be used by all its community both now and in years to come.

The sustainability project took a practical, common sense approach, which brought direct and clear community and environmental benefits. My job was to do energy and access audits of requesting village halls. This audit identified and recommended appropriate building improvements and provided the management committee with a list of funding opportunities to put those in place. The committee would decide which it wished to pursue, a decision informed by the audit and community consultation, and if required I would provide support and advice during the consultation and funding application process. Management committees are volunteers, and this is a new and daunting experience for many. Help was also often needed to identify appropriate products and/or contractors for the work.
 
Most of the RCBs made building improvements such as installing insulation, or new space or water heating systems, all of which are important and essential steps to lower running costs. The largest and most ambitious project during my time at HWRCC was Skeffling Village Hall’s Project “Warming Skeffling Village Hall - not the planet” which included a large refurbishment and the installation of a 6KW wind turbine. This should put them in a truely sustainable situation as it provides them with both a source of energy and extra income from power generation sold back to the grid. The range of projects that were undertaken by each hall reflected the variety in need, ability and ambition of each village hall management committee and its community.

During my time with HWRCC I also completed a study in the financial sustainability of RCBs. This looked at the financial and other pressures they faced, and the measures that need to be promoted to help address these. We received data from nearly 40 RCBs regarding the sources of income and expenditure and how these have changed over the last 7 years. This in depth research had not been done before and the results provided good evidence of the support requirements of these groups, and will help HWRCC develop their village hall advisory service in the future. A copy of the report will be available by contacting This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

As some background, Humber and Wolds Rural Community Council is a charity and company limited by guarantee, and one of 38 Rural Community Councils (RCCs) across England. They promote and respond to rural needs, in areas such as village halls, affordable housing, community transport and community development. They have an umbrella body, ACRE (Action for Communities in Rural England), who provides information and support to each RCC, and are the central government liaison. For more information please see www.acre.org.uk and www.hwrcc.org.uk.
 
The funding of the Village Halls Sustainability project was from DEFRA’s Rural Social Community Programme (RSCP). This programme funded projects at RCCs across the country from April 2006 to March 2008 (the sources and certainty of funding following this date is unknown).

It has been a great experience working with everyone at HWRCC and with such committed and welcoming individuals who volunteer so much of their time for their community. The CHE Masters widened my perspective about environmental sustainability, social justice, and allowed me to pursue my interest in sustainable building, and after completing the course in 2005 I was ready to start putting what I had learned into practice. When I arrived at HWRCC it was great and humbling to see that they were already doing a lot of this work and had been for decades (often, I think, without them necessarily realising it).

Please feel free to contact Criggy: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it