When the hall reopened in September, we knew that a second closure was not impossible and had made plans accordingly.
This planning paid off on the announcement of the November lockdown, hopefully without too much inconvenience for our hirers. The hall is reopening under ‘tier 2’ restrictions on Wednesday December 2nd.
Among many lessons this year; a closed hall does not mean no work for the committee of unpaid volunteers. We discovered how much we can get done over Zoom, email and telephone. The Thursday evening ‘reopening subcommittee’ clocked up 14 video calls, and this group continues to ‘meet’ fortnightly to manage the ever-changing situation.
Sadly many of our previous hirers cannot return at the moment, although some events are possible with the new measures. We’ve had some lovely feedback from hirers and attendees, which has made all the hard work worthwhile.
Plans for our socially-distanced poppy placing were also stopped by the lockdown. Nonetheless we were still able to put up a display inside the lobby and also around the artwork. Thank you to one of our trustees for arranging all this, which allowed passers-by to ‘pause to remember’ in safety.
The hall came out of the first lockdown with a greatly improved lighting system, funded by the National Lottery. Some will consider that an even bigger improvement will be 40 new padded chairs. These will have wipe-clean upholstery so will be usable under the restrictions. Thanks to the Tirgwynt Wind Farm Community Fund for funding these. The purchase has also been supported by the sale of 40 of the old chairs, plus donations from the Calor crowdfunder earlier in the year. We are hoping to have our new chairs in a few weeks.
The committee wishes everyone a happy Christmas and a peaceful and healthy new year. 2021 will be the 99th year of operation for the hall. Thank you to all who have supported us, and here’s hoping for better times for all of us.
To contact us: (open or closed!)
- call 07913 565708
- email secretary@pantmemorialhall.org.uk
- see our website www.pantmemorialhall.org.uk
- facebook @pantmemorialhall
- twitter @pantmemhall
- leave us a note in the postbox!