The Kintyre Forum

From the Council website - don't know if this deals with concerns, however?

COUNCIL DEALS WITH VICTORIA HALL CONCERNS

Argyll and Bute Council has put a number of measures in place to address issues recently raised by members of the public regarding the Victoria Hall in Campbeltown.

The Council is aware that the hall is an extremely important asset to the local community and its ongoing success is a key operating objective of the Leisure Service.
Sandy McTaggart, Head of Facility Services, said: “Following some specific areas of concern, we would like to assure members of the public that checks on the safety of staging equipment and lighting in the hall are undertaken by a specialist contractor as part of the Council’s Annual Statutory maintenance programme.

“These checks were undertaken in August of this year, and confirmed the safety at the installation.”

Mr McTaggart said that while the stage lighting in the Victoria Hall is generally comparable with the Council’s other theatres and halls, the recent comparison made with the Corran Halls in Oban must take into account that the Corran Hall’s lighting and dimmer racks were upgraded earlier this year thanks to a grant award from the Oban Common Good Fund.

The Council will be reviewing the current provision and operation of sound and lighting equipment to establish future community requirements while, in the short term, work will soon be underway to improve the hall’s sound system.

A review of the hall’s conditions of let and charges has also started along with an assessment of stewarding and training requirements.

The aim of these actions is to give potential hall hirers a clear guide to charges, equipment provision, conditions of let and responsibilities, which the Council hopes will address concerns.

the vic has always been crap compared with other halls in argyll, be it lighting pa or the charges, i remember years ago when if you hired the hall you had to hire the cooncils bouncers (stewards) too, they were about as much use as a chocolate watch, at the first sign of trouble they would be off oot the door, all they did was confiscate beer etc and drink it themselves(some of them)

i think its the same as the old days, theres one rate for normal events and another for things that might bring in the punters, i remember a levy being added to ticket prices because the previous hiring had seen 600+ come thru the doors(pubs did shut at 10pm in those days so everyone went to the vic)

prices were £2 a head and MR. EH added 20p onto the back end next time without explaination, so increases in prices are nothing new but are a damn disgrace, the hall is there for the community and as such should be free

i remember last year helping to clear up on a sunday morning as we were told that we would need to pay a ransom for cleaners, over £100 if memory is correct, this included us washing floor and toilets, kitchen, foyer etc, not just a general tidy round as has been suggested elsewhere by the cooncil.

i remember last year helping to clear up on a sunday morning as we were told that we would need to pay a ransom for cleaners, over £100 if memory is correct, this included us washing floor and toilets, kitchen, foyer etc, not just a general tidy round as has been suggested elsewhere by the cooncil.

Not that, in any way, am I saying I agree with the Vic charges but why should the Council have to pay or in fact clean a hall after an event such as a dance? The CTA have paid £165 for cleaners the last two times after our dance and to be honest it is a £165 well spent! Have you seen the mess the hall can get into?

To be honest the above statement does NOT deal with the issue over the pricing until they are actually printed. Good to see however, they are addressing the issue with regards the hall conditions, lighting and sound and one thing for sure is Sandy McTaggart is very pro-active!

The community does need to be able to use the Victoria Hall for events and fund raising and I agree with the other comments about people using the school hall - it is a school, not a venue.

David

sorry if i appeared to not address the issue, i'll make it simple and to the point

the rising cost of hiring the victoria hall, taking into account the poor quality of the lighting and sound equipment, is ridiculous, further added to by the fact that this price does not include the cost of cleaners. i don't know who they are or if their services are worth the amount quoted, tho i suspect not, because nobody is worth that amount for the job involved. maybe we should all become council cleaners, by my reckoning they must be earning between £20 and £40 an hour, depending on how many are involved.

the case i mentioned involved a quick tidy round by a dozen or so people as the hall was in pretty good shape the next morning, maybe due to an older crowd, i don't know?

the rising costs are echoed in the cost of meadows playing fields which lead to the cancelling of this years soccer centre soccer festival.

i still maintain that the hall and fields should be free, i want more for my council tax than getting my bin lifted, the library getting moved so dunoon can get a flume for their pool and seeing double time daffy planting!!!!!