December 1997 - Editorial
THE VILLAGE HALL
I was thinking recently about how we make decisions, and how we resolve conflicts between the various people we are involved with.
What do you really do when you feel you ought to do some work at home because of that meeting you have tomorrow, but your wife has been asking you for ages to tidy the garden up, and you have just got to take the children swimming, and what you would really like to do is to sit quietly and read the paper?
How do we decide what to do in these circumstances? Do we follow the noisiest or the strongest? Do we do our duty, or do we just do what we want to do, for a change?
How do we resolve difficult decisions down at the Village Hall? How do we balance the sometimes conflicting requirements of our Users, our neighbours and members of the village with the need to provide a safe, warm, clean, smart Hall? How do we provide a facility such as this, with a volunteer force of individuals?
From time to time, we have conflicting demands on the use of the Hall or the car park. How do we decide when two different groups put in a request to use the Hall at the same time? Is it first come first served, do we let market forces decide and somehow let the one prepared to pay most have the use of the room? Or do we decide on some social grounds, because it is a village asset?
I am frequently taken to task by one group or another over the use of the Village Hall car park. This is private property, owned by the Community Association, which runs the Hall. This means that in strict terms, it should only be used by people when they have booked and are using the Village Hall.
But what do we do about those people wanting to park to go to the shops? The car park outside the shops is only very small and not capable of providing enough space for the cars who drive to the shops. If people could not use the Hall car park, there would be huge traffic problems for cars wanting to park near the shops and not being able to. So to avoid potential traffic problems in the village, the Association turns a blind eye to cars parking there and going to the shops. This is a service we are providing for the village.
Similarly, we quietly condone our neighbours in the surrounding roads parking their cars on the car park to avoid a road hazard in the nearby areas. We also allow temporary parking for those who want to visit the mobile library, or the paper skip.
What do we do about children playing on the car park? Do we stop them because it is an unsafe place to play? Where do they go to play, then? They have to go somewhere, or should we all conveniently forget that we were young once, and we all wanted somewhere to play football, or whatever. Do they go and play in the middle of Oaklands, or School Lane, both busy and dangerous places. Even the car park is safer than both those.
It is a worry and a concern and a battle that we cannot win. We cannot please everybody.
We do not want anyone to abuse the facility. We would draw the line at large numbers of people wanting to park there, preventing our Hall Users from parking satisfactorily. We would not want organised games of football to take place there. We would not allow private business to be carried on there.
We need to maintain a balance in its use by the sometimes conflicting interests, by Hall Users for car parking, by people wanting to park there to visit the shops, and by other village Users. We do not want to take any extreme measures to restrict its use, such as putting a barrier up for Hall Users only. We need to establish a consensus in its use by all the village and avoid its abuse by anybody.
SUTTON SIX AND FUN RUNS
The annual Sutton Six and Fun Runs took place as usual this year. They were very successful with a good sized, high quality field and a similar number of competitors to the last few years. The weather was kind to us again (how many more years can we be lucky with a nice day?) and it was a really enjoyable day. My thanks to all who helped on the day and beforehand.
They were organised by CEPAC ( the Chester and Ellesmere Port Athletic Club) and were held on Sunday September 21st finishing at the Village Hall. The format for the day was the same tried and tested formula, with CEPAC organising and preparing the races and the Community Association providing the Village Hall and laying on refreshments, a barbecue and a cake stall. It was a real family occasion, with things to do for all members of the family.
Put a date in your diary for next year - it will be on Sunday 20th September, same time, same place.
VILLAGE QUIZ
The next Annual Village Quiz will be held in the Village Hall on Saturday 14th March 1998.
It will, no doubt, be an excellent evening with questions provided as usual by Al Christmas on a wide range of subjects. There are usually picture rounds and some music questions, as well as general knowledge and other subjects. You are guaranteed a top quality supper, some good wine and beer, and of course, great company. Sounds pretty good to me.
