Logie Coldstone Village Hall

In this case study, we look at a community-led refurbishment project in the rural community of Logie Coldstone in Aberdeenshire. 

The project has provided the community with a refurbished, warm and comfortable community hall. And the process of delivering the project has served to strengthen community ties and create a more resilient rural community. 

• Lessons for communities taking on similar projects
• A community hall unfit for purpose
• The start of a new community organisation
• Bringing in voices of local community members
• The steppingstone towards an energy efficient hall
• A driving force for the project
• The pursuit of funding
• The process of the build
• Result of the build
• Using the space 

Logie Coldstone Trust makes several recommendations for other communities considering taking on a similar project. 

1. Develop a structured community organisation 

Make sure the legal structure of your organisation is appropriate and assess whether or not the community is ready for the project. 

2. Establish a resilient committee 

Establish a resilient committee that is prepared to meet as often as fortnightly during the project, and a core group of two to four people available to make day-to-day decisions.  

Do plenty of research before beginning and take plenty time for this. After the public meeting in January 2004, the committee envisaged having the main hall refurbished and the small hall rebuilt in six months, but it took nearly ten years to get the main hall completed! 

3. Be ready for budgeting 

Allow for the cost of all professional fees in the project budget – Logie Coldstone ended up using the following professional services in addition to the architect:  

• Structural engineer 
• Quantity surveyor 
• Bat survey 
• Asbestos survey 
• CDM coordinator 
• Take ownership of the project 

Engage with the community to ‘take ownership’ of the project and input their views on their needs – the following were incorporated into the proposals: 

• A warm and economically heated building 
• A hearing loop in the main hall 
• A light, bright foyer with room for community information to be displayed 
• Portable staging 
• Landscaped seating area 
• Wheelchair accessible toilet with a baby changing area 

5. Community cooperation 

Never underestimate the power of community cooperation and what it can achieve. Improve communication in the community by whatever means such as newsletters, website, social media, and simple events for folk to come and get to know each other. 

All of this helps to build the capacity of a community to undertake such projects—communities need everyone to tackle projects like this. 

In retrospect, while the hall was being comprehensively upgraded the Trust believe they may have missed the opportunity to install under-floor insulation in the hall. They agreed if they were to carry out the work again, this is something they would reconsider. 

6. Improve management of the hall 

Consider ways to make the management of the hall easier – in this case Logie Coldstone Trust has: 

• had the building wired to make electronic access possible in the future to minimise the need for committee members to come along to open up and lock up 
• installed a heating system which is much easier to manage. This avoids having to come down hours before a meeting /event to put on the heating 
• assess the objectives of new projects and try to seek funding from the appropriate bodies. Logie Coldstone Trust spent too long seeking lottery funding which was not appropriate for the project. The project became much easier once funders were identified to fund objectives which matched the Trust’s aims 

Logie Coldstone is a small settlement in rural Aberdeenshire, with around 227 houses in the Logie Coldstone polling district.  

Built in 1897, the granite village hall had a small timber hall added to it in the 1950s. There was a minor refurbishment to the hall in 1987 to update the toilets and kitchen and renew the main hall floor. 

By 2003 the hall was in an increased state of disrepair, with children able to sneak in through holes in the external wall of the small hall. 

Concerned with the structural integrity of the hall, the community contacted a local development organisation.  

On their advice, the community commissioned a structural survey to gain advice from a local architect on the state of the hall—subsequently organising a public meeting to advise the local community of the issue.

A comprehensive community survey in 2005 had confirmed that there was a continuing need for a flexible and cost-effective community space.  

The survey findings prompted the hall management committee to explore the potential for Lottery funding, which was looking to fund community projects with a sound business case.  

Challenges of funding 

A small rural hall with relatively low usage within a few miles of two similar buildings was not seen as a funding priority and funds were not granted.  

At this point, the Trust members were left in a predicament about how to proceed – How much could be spent on the project? Were there any other feasible uses for the hall? 

Bringing in experts in the field 

The management committee decided to commission a feasibility study to explore all options for redeveloping Logie Coldstone Hall.  

In 2008 consultants carried out the study for the retrofitting of the hall. This included plans for the option of rebuilding the small hall, presented at an open day. The design was received favourably but the potential cost of £600,000 was felt too high considering no guaranteed additional uses for the hall.  

In the meantime, the Trust made small improvements to the hall, such as painting windows. But their confidence in embarking on a major project further dented by the economic downturn. 

A drive to move the project forward came in December 2010 when Aberdeenshire Council threatened the closure of Logie Coldstone Primary School. This stimulated the efforts of the Trust to inform the scattered local community. 

In the end, the collective effort of the community and new Scottish Government policies on rural schools kept the school open. The event helped to unite the community giving them the confidence they needed to refurbish the hall.  

With the school remaining open, the Trust felt it was more relevant to ensure there was a flexible community space for future use. 

When the ceiling in the main hall collapsed in December 2011 and a structural engineer declared the hall unsafe to use, it became the driving force for action. 

A breakthrough in funding 

One funder offered a small amount of money on the condition that a bulk amount of funding was secured from other sources first. 

The Trust sought funding from LEADER (Links Between Activities Developing the Rural Economy) but most of the available money for rural Aberdeenshire had been allocated. The breakthrough came in March 2012 when LEADER approached the community.  

There had been an underspend throughout Scotland so additional funding had been allocated to Aberdeenshire. LEADER encouraged the community at Logie Coldstone to consider a larger scale project, and not to be daunted by the fact they needed to secure match funding from other bodies. 

The committee successfully applied for funding, provided by The Robertson Trust, the Climate Challenge Fund and Aberdeenshire Council.  

The local community in Logie Coldstone raised 5% of the funding some of which was in-kind. The funding provided by the Climate Challenge Fund was to specifically fund energy and carbon saving measures. 

A local hero 

Due to the nature of grant funding, money cannot be drawn down until the first stage of work has been completed on site. This left the Trust with a considerable shortfall to fund the first stage of the works.  

On the advice of the LEADER fund project officer, they sought an interest free loan, and wrote to four major local landowners seeking support. A landowner who was developing self-catering holiday accommodation nearby recognised the mutual benefit of an attractive community hall. 

As the hall could host a range of activities and events, he offered an interest free loan of £20,000 as well as the services of his accountant who had previously been involved in a similar project. This proved invaluable for the Trust. 

Reducing CO2 emissions 

The work to improve the thermal performance of the hall has been very successful and the Trust has calculated a large reduction in CO2 emissions. 

Based on September 2012 calculations, pre refurbishment, the annual CO2 emissions for Logie Coldstone Hall were 5.1 tonnes. Calculations estimated reduction of 2.63 tonnes in CO2 emissions for Logie Coldstone Hall would be achieved following the refurbishment of the hall which would represent a saving of over 50%. 

Monitoring energy use and heat costs 

The energy use and heating costs are being monitored in the hall and the Trust aim to reflect on these to ascertain the optimum settings for heating the hall for different purposes.  

They aim to make an assessment on energy use following one year of occupation. As per the recommendations for the heating system, the Air Source Heat Pumps are on constantly, with the thermostat set at 16 degrees, the temperature is raised for several events. 

Considerations for energy and carbon savings 

Determining whether true carbon savings are being made is hard, as the hall is being used much more than it was before the refurbishment.  

It could be argued that as the hall is used more often, the community are gathering more frequently as a group in the hall, rather than heating several individual houses.  

As many of the activities in the hall are around the theme of energy awareness and carbon savings, it may be that the hall has in fact not saved as much carbon as initially estimated, by being used more frequently, but the saving has been deflected to the wider community.  

Logie Coldstone Trust have instigated community energy usage surveys which they hope might give some indication of carbon savings made in the wider community. 

There is a visitors’ book in the hall and the Trust has received many positive comments. Feedback has indicated that the space is now warm, bright and inviting. Hall users have commented on the incomparable comfort level the air source heat pumps and added insulation have offered. 

Maintaining air source heat pumps 

The heating bills for the first quarter have been higher than expected. It is believed that this was due to the electric panel heaters (in areas not served by the Air Source Heat Pump) set higher than necessary.  

This has now been rectified as members of the Logie Coldstone Trust have been trained in the basic maintenance of the Air Source Heat Pumps. 

Image credits: Logie Coldstone Trust