Way forward agreed for transferring village halls to local community groups

The Highland Council has taken on board the views of community organisations to ensure the transfer of 11 village halls in the Inverness and Easter Ross area from the ownership of the council to local groups can be concluded to the satisfaction of both parties.

The Council is willing to transfer £1 million worth of public assets to local groups, who run the halls at Ardersier, Cannich, Diamond Jubilee Hall (Evanton), Fearn, Fort Augustus, Muir of Ord, Milnafua (Alness); Perrins Centre (Alness), Polnicol,  Saltburn (Invergordon) and Smithton.

The sale price would be £1. 

In selling the properties, the Council has to demonstrate that it is protecting the public interest and it will be placing a condition on the sale that the proceeds of any future sale of the properties are tied to a benefit for the local community.   The Council will be liaising with Audit Scotland, the Government’s public spending watchdog, to ensure that this condition is appropriate.

The matter was discussed at a public meeting on Tuesday night and again by the Council’s Resources Committee on Wednesday.

As a result of concerns raised at the public meeting, the Committee agreed:

A further report will be provided to the Resources Committee updating the position at an appropriate time.

Councillor Carolyn Wilson, Chairman of the Resources Committee, is pleased that the Council is making progress in finding a way forward in transferring council assets to local communities.

She said: “The main benefit of transferring the village halls is that it keeps these assets in community ownership and use.  In addition, community groups have access to improvement grants and external funding which is not available to the council.  Having met with the groups, I am sure they are well placed to make a success of taking over these assets for their own communities.  We are prepared to be flexible and give as much help as possible throughout the step by step process.

“At the same time, we have a duty to protect these assets for these communities and we will do this by ensuring that if the community in the future, decides to sell the assets, the money will be reinvested for the good of that community.”