Charlbury Football & Social Club

Tue 5 Jan 2016, 10:47

As chairman of The Thomas Gifford Trust, I would like to clarify some of the issues that are being discussed here, and in particular the question of a new clubhouse for the Sports & Social Club.

While the Thomas Gifford Trust has never had an agreement with the Club over providing a new clubhouse, as plans for the new Community Centre have developed over the past three years, our trustees have met regularly with the Club's committee to ensure that they have been kept informed about the project's progress. When we applied for planning permission for the Community Centre last year, we obtained consent for the site for a social club as well, adjoining but completely separate from the Centre itself.

We have also kept the Club's committee informed about potential funding options for building a new clubhouse. However, because of VAT rules, the Trust cannot do this for the Club. As a charity, the Trust can benefit from what is known as the village hall exemption, which means that we do not have to pay VAT on the building costs for the Community Centre itself. Building a new clubhouse as part of the Centre would result in us losing this exemption. Having to pay VAT on the whole Centre, and not just on the clubhouse part, would increase the construction cost by something like £400,000 ?" which we simply cannot afford.

Another question that we are asked regularly is whether the new Community Centre will mean that other buildings in Charlbury, such as the Corner House and Memorial Hall, will be used less in the future. The business model that our trustees have developed for the Centre specifically excludes competition with the other venues, because it is a completely different building. The main hall will be about four times larger than the Memorial Hall, and is designed to provide facilities for sports and events that the other places cannot cater for. It will be adding new, much-needed facilities for Charlbury, not replacing the existing ones. The exception is the creation of a larger Library suitable for the size of the population of Charlbury that is supported by the Friends of Charlbury Library and the County Council, who are partly funding the building.

The December edition of The Charlbury Chronicle included some questions and answers about the Community Centre project. These covered things like the construction schedule that we hope to follow, how we are funding the project, uses for the building, and how the Trust and the Town Council have been actively helping the Sports & Social Club to find an alternative venue and raise funds for a new clubhouse. Our aim is to provide Charlbury with a centre that everyone in the town and surrounding communities will enjoy using, and we need everyone's support to ensure that it happens.