We are happy to report that the main hall's wooden floor has now been refurbished and it looks magnificent. We hope you will be impressed on your next visit to the Hall. We have been busy ensuring that the plastic feet on the chairs, benches and tables are in place to ensure that the new coating on the floor is not damaged. We are now looking at our finances to see what other refurbishments we can afford to keep the hall in good condition for our users.

We hope you all enjoyed the May Day celebrations as much as we did! The Community Hall provided a welcome refuge from the May Day showers and the refreshment counter did a roaring trade. The showers did not dampen anyone's spirits and a tremendous £2000 was raised. This will be split equally between the Hall, School and the Church. Thank you to everyone who supported the event.
The hall's portion of these funds will be put towards the refurbishment of the main hall's wooden floor. The funds raised have allowed us to definitely schedule the work to take place in the first week of June. It will be complete by the end of the half-term holiday.
The committee are keen for new members to bring new ideas to the management of the Community Hall. If you are interested in joining the committee please go to the 'contact us' link for details on how to get in touch.

A new class is starting at the Community Hall on Tuesday 4th May. The class, run by Jennifer Dudley, is called Stretch and Tone, and is a mixture of Pilates and Yoga. It will run between 9.30am and 10.30am every Tuesday morning.

A Happy New Year to you all. The recent inclement weather has stopped many of our regular users from actually getting to the Hall so we hope that February will be snow-free! We are now looking forward to May and the May Day event which will take place on Monday 3rd. If you would like to help or have any ideas for stalls please contact us via our website www.tardcomhall.org.uk

Committee member Lucy Parkes would like to say a huge thank you to all those who turned up on Saturday 5th December to help Tardebigge Community Hall with its BBC Breathing Places “Tree O’Clock” event. Having pledged to plant 450 trees in support of the attempt to break the world record for number of trees planted in one hour in multiple locations, Tardebigge is proud to have managed 474!

Most of these have gone into a hedge all the way along the car park, but a few made it to an area where they will be able to grow to full height. There was a wonderful atmosphere of team spirit during the planting; especially once it became clear we had plenty of time, enabling us to finish the job properly with rabbit-proofing and mulch!

The BBC are still collating and validating all the evidence submitted by groups who planted trees, so far 230,000 plantings have been confirmed. This is not a World Record but still is a fantastic achievement. For further information please go to the Breathing Places website at www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/treeoclock

We hope the hedge will thrive and provide an extra habitat for the wildlife on the site.

2009 has been an exciting year for the Community Hall which is now able to produce its own electricity via photovoltaic panels and tap into stored energy in the earth to heat and provide hot water for the building (see separate article by committee member and project manager Rob Oldaker). The resulting reduction in our electricity bill will enable us to keep hire charges low. The new car park is fully operational and there is outside lighting. The car park and picnic tables have been much appreciated not only by users of the Hall but by those who use Tardebigge First School, the Church and adjoining countryside. The successful completion of these projects has been due to the hard work of committee members securing grant monies and from fundraising events such as concert teas and a Barn Dance kindly hosted by Tutnall and Cobley Parish Council. Whilst there is a salaried cleaner/caretaker, all other jobs associated with running the Hall such as maintenance, finance, bookings, risk assessments and security are done by volunteers which helps to keep costs and thus hire charges down.
The Community Hall has a number of diverse users ranging from the pre-school to the Stroke Association. This year it has been the venue for large events such as the local Big Breakfast event (raising funds for Cancer Research UK), the Worcester Birmingham Canal Society 40th anniversary celebrations and the annual May Day celebrations which this year raised funds for the School. The committee works hard to try to meet the needs of all its users, as well as avoid disruption to neighbouring residents. This can be quite a challenge! The next project will be to increase the storage capacity to fulfil the demands of our regular users. In addition the Hall’s available finances need improving. A loan taken out to complete the building still needs to be paid off in full and lack of funds has meant that the planned employment of a salaried booking officer, redecoration, replacement of gravel which can be hazardous to our disabled users and installation of decking in front of the Hall have all been delayed.
We are still landscaping the car park and at time of going to press, committee member Lucy Parkes is working hard to promote our participation in the nationwide Tree O’clock event which aims to break the Guinness World Record for the most number of trees planted at multiple locations within one hour. We aim to plant a 75m hedge screening the car park involving 450 saplings! By the time you read this, we may be joint World Record holders! The Committee will continue to work hard in 2010 to ensure that the Hall is an asset to you and we would welcome new members to help us do this - so please come forward and support the running of your Hall.

Our events are advertised on the Parish Council notice boards, in the church magazine and on our website www.tardcomhall.org.uk. Please note Monday 3rd May, the date of the next May Day celebration, in your new diaries. We look forward to seeing you at your Community Hall.

Cath Mijovic, Hon Secretary, Tardebigge Community Hall Management Committee