VILLAGE HALL; AGAIN
The edition of the
Berwickshire which came out the Thursday before Huttonian’s return from the Antipodes carried the unfortunate front page (minor) headline: ‘
Hutton split over new hall’. This is old news and does not, I think, reflect the current feeling in the village. The Hutton Hall committee have long since moved on from old squabbles and the agreement seems to be (funds permitting) either to refurbish the existing building with disabled access or , if Allah is munificent, put up a new building on the existing site.
The Berwickshire was referring to a decision by the Berwickshire Area Committee to turn down outline planning permission for a new hall on the green field site in front of the Kirk. The Hall Committee had let this application run although they had a good idea from feedback from the planning people in Duns that it would not get far for all the reasons blogged about in earlier editions: protected view, flooding dangers/drainage difficulties, objections to the basic utilitarian nature of the (likely) design ( although this was outline planning application only). It was also clear to the planners that a new hall on a new site was not supported by the whole community and the Community Council had pointed out some of the difficulties when asked to comment on the application.
Our Borders Councillor is quoted by the B’shire as suggesting that the Hutton Village Hall Committee and the Community Council work together to ‘come up with a solution to provide Hutton with a new hall’ It is not clear to whom this statement was made but it is probably wise to let the Hall Committee get on with it without the involvement of other bodies. Especially as there is widespread community agreement on the way forward.
Nuff said.
