No. | Item | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Question from: County Councillor David Jones Subject: Community assets with dual use
Question:
Many of our community centres and village halls in Powys share a site with or are attached to primary schools. They are used by the school during the school day and the wider community in the evening and at weekends. What arrangements are being put in place to return these community assets to dual use and when is that use expected to return?
Minutes: Response by the Portfolio Holder:
Corporate Property are working with schools to ensure that they are able to make use safely of buildings that are not part of the school, but are assets which are routinely used by schools. What this means in context depends on each individual school's situation, but would cover community and village halls, leisure centres, co-located library facilities, and so forth.
As part of the school's own planning and risk assessment, they will need to assure themselves that those premises are able to be used form a basic building compliance standpoint (legionella, fire safety, etc). Corporate Property and relevant partners in and outside the local authority are working together on behalf of the schools to advise and guide the managers of those premises as to what needs to be in place or done, so that those premises can give that assurance to the schools.
Additional to this, schools will also need to risk assess their plans to make use of those premises, and to plan what control measures (particularly cleaning) will need to be in place. This is much more individual to each school's situation. Dependent on the local circumstances in each case, schools may decide not to make use of those premises, or may seek to have sole use of them. Between those two extremes, there will be a spectrum of options for shared use.
On the assumption that basic building safety and compliance checks are in order, dual use can begin from 1st September.
|