A PARISH council has voted to dissolve its partnership with a village hall committee as it looks to push for Community Legacy Grant funding.

Dodderhill Parish Council (DPC) needs to have its second stage application sent to Wychavon District Council by November 15 in the hopes of getting a share of the £3million scheme to pay for a village hall refurbishment.

During an extraordinary meeting of the council on Monday, chairman Alyson Keane said the committee favoured holding off on applying for funding until next year – though no committee members were present.

The motion put forward was for the council itself to take over the management of the hall and issue the committee with 30 days notice of its intention to press ahead with the application alone, as had been requested.

Councillor Keane said DPC’s agreement with the district over Section 106 funding afforded it to install a play area on the adjacent fields last summer required it to have outdoor toilets installed.

While the hall itself is in desperate need of refurbishment, she added.

“In 2020 this hall has got to be refurbished in some way, shape or form.

“The level of the refurbishment depends on whether we get the legacy grant or not – apart from that Wychavon has told us that we have to have a proper tenancy agreement set up for the people that manage it.”

The chairman went on to say, if the council puts in a joint funding application with the committee it would have to supply three years worth of accounts, which could prove difficult.

It was unclear if she was referring to the council's accounts or the committee.

Councillor Sue Howarth voiced some concern over the rushed nature of the decision, and what she saw as a lack of proper costing analysis done, eventually voting against the motion, while the four other councillors present voted in favour.

Councillor Doug Webb said the letter should make it clear that the council would be open to partnering again with the committee in future, with Cllr Keane having initially said that would be “taken as read”.

In October 2018, Cllr Keane had made a proposal while part of the committee, that her management firm take over works at the village hall in return for 10 per cent of the profits.

Other committee members said that would create a “huge conflict of interest”.

At a full meeting in February, the council agreed to attempt to recover £2,700 in expenses it believes it’s owed by the village hall committee.

Cllr Keane said the committee broke a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ in which the council would only pay fees “while they got themselves in order” following a handover period from different leadership.

This has been disputed by the committee.