THE ARMY COVENANT TRUST GRANT
For many years (at least since 2001) there have been many projects and proposals
for a new village hall and most failed either because the scale of the building was too
ambitious or the funding was unachievable. This is why, when the Army made
available through an Army Covenant Trust Fund a grant of £236,400 in 2015 it was a
fantastic opportunity to start again in earnest.
An agreement was drawn up in haste in early 2015 and the Individual/organisation
responsible for delivering the project were specified as follows:
1 Stephanie Watson, Chairman of Debden Village Hall Registered with the
Charity Commission in 1967 and the Village Hall Trustees
2 Debden Parish Council act as Custodian Trustee of Debden Village Hall.
3 The New Village Hall Group (NVHG) is a committee of volunteers responsible
for building a new village hall for Debden
The signatories for the agreement were John Mitchell the CEO of Uttlesford
District Council,(representing the Local Authority), and the CO of Carver
Barracks Col Will Mc Donald (representing the Armed Forces).
The Terms And Conditions for the grant stipulated that once the grant was awarded
the funds would be released to the Local Authority for safekeeping and phased
release if high value. For some unknown reason the grant in its totality was
forwarded to the Village Hall Charity which kept it in their bank account. This action
became the cause of a continued dispute between the UDC and the Village Hall
Trust when the grant was recalled by the MOD in 2020
In the agreement there was a question about the projected timetable and the
applicants were asked to include the start and end date for the project and major
milestones. This is what was specified by the applicants:
With further third-party grants, continued fundraising and pledges from
within the community, the project would be completed by the end of 2016,
with a formal Grand Opening planned in spring 2017.
Unfortunately the Village Hall Trustees underestimated both the amount of time it
would take to achieve enough funding to build the hall, but more importantly the
complexities of a land exchange agreement needed to be able to build in a different
location than the current one and the amount of land that could be exchanged. As
the latter involved two charitable trusts, permission from the Charity Commission
would be needed.
The two sets of trustees became entangled in a prolonged battle of wills that after
two years culminated in an impasse. At the end of 2016 the possible imminent
withdrawal of the Army Covenant Grant became a very important issue. A group of
concerned residents put together a plan for the rebuilding of the new village hall on
its current site. They paid for the architect’s fees and the planning application and in
January 2017 all parties concerned agreed to work together to save the Army grant.
The plan was accepted by the Trustees of the Recreation Ground Trust, the Village
Hall Trust, the Parish Council and the New Village Hall Group, an un-constituted
group of villagers who advised the VHT on fundraising. A letter was sent to the Army
Covenant Group to report that an agreement had been reached. The grant seemedsaved. Unfortunately, the NVHG changed their mind and the Chairman, Mike
Fairchild, notified the CEO of Uttlesford District Council, Dawn French, that they did
not want any part in the new project. Instead of supporting the RGT and the PC, the
Chief Executive resolved that a Mediation process should be undergone by all
parties to come to a compromise for a different location on the recreation ground.
The Mediation was imposed on the RGT and the PC and for a period of 18 months
meetings took place and ideas exchanged until, in January 2019, a compromise was
reached which had also the approval of the Charity Commission.
At this stage, an architect’s plan was put forward by the VHT which was approved by
the RGT Trustees, the Charity Commission released an Order for the land exchange
and a contract was finalised for the transaction. Once again the grant was saved!
However, an almost completely new Council (6 of the 7 councillor were also RGT
trustees ex-officio) was voted in May 2019 elections with the slogan “Time for
change”.
This new inexperienced administration decided to change all the decisions taken by
the previous one and refused to listen to protestations by various members of the
public until, once again, the Army Covenant Trust Fund threatened to withdraw the
grant if no progress was made with the new village hall. The Parish Council
submitted a planning application for a new village hall in November 2019 but sadly,
on the wrong site, not at all what was agreed in the Mediation and definitely against
the best interests of the RGT. In addition, because of lack of an ecology report the
planning application was withdrawn
The Army issued an ultimatum threatening to withdraw the grant if no action was
taken by the end of March 2020.
The Parish Council stepped in and resolved that, in order to save the grant,
additional funding should be sought by applying to the Public Works Loan Board for
a loan of £400,000 repayable over 40 years. This would require an increase of the
Parish Precept of 107% and the demolition and rebuilding of the Sports Pavilion.
The Chairman sent a letter to residents in early February 2020 to let them know that
the PC had agreed at the PC meeting held on 5th February a consultation would
take place on “the option of the PC seeking borrowing from the Public Works Loan
Board to support the costs of replacing the Pavilion and supporting the current
funding shortfall of the New Village Hall project in order to protect the MOD grant of
£239,000 “ (this was the wrong amount, it should have been £236,400) An
explanatory letter was subsequently published by two Councillors as to the specific
purposes of the consultation namely:
• The Parish Council Precept Survey is not a vote on which hall you prefer.
• It is asking whether you support the Parish Council (PC) in applying for a loan
facility – not to draw down a loan or borrow now. The PC is just securing
approval for a loan should it be required in the future.
• This is required in order for the village to retain the MoD grant of £236,400.
• If you vote YES, we will retain the MoD grant and a new Village Hall project
can move forward.
• If you vote NO, at the end of March we will have to return the MoD grant of
£236,400. Should this happen, no hall project could move forward.
The consultation took place in the beginning of March 2020 and it resulted in a
narrow majority (56%) in favour of increasing the precept. The inclusion of the
replacement of the Sports Pavilion was omitted in the survey form. When the
Chairman was asked why the omission and whether the residents had been misled
she admitted that the inclusion of the pavilion in the consultation had been made “in
error”.
Notwithstanding the approval of the village for an increase in the precept in order to
apply for the £400,000 loan from the PWLB, the Parish Council did not take any
action and the Army once again in June 2020 asked for the grant to be returned. The
Uttlesford CEO intervened on behalf of the Village Hall Trust and the grant received
a stay of execution until the end of September.
Eventually, on the 30th November 2020 the UDC’s CEO announced publicly at a
meeting of the Governance Committee that the Army had officially asked for the
grant to be returned by the Village Hall Trust to UDC who in turn would return it to
the MOD. If the VHT refused to comply, the usual legal route would be taken by
UDC.
What happened after that was an embarrassing saga of legal action and
counteraction for which UDC, who should have retained the grant, had erroneously
handed it over to the VHT and the Trustees protesting that there was no deadline in
the agreement for delivering the project
In February 2022, the Village Hall Trust announced that the grant
had been returned to the Army.