The Parish Hall was built around 1930 on church Glebe Land sold to the Parochial Church Council (PCC) for this purpose; the land, including the Hall, is owned by the PCC.
A 1971 agreement between the PCC (plus two other church bodies), Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) and the Launton Playing Field Association (LPFA) saw an access roadway and car park built in the Hall’s garden, which gave OCC access to the rear of the next-door school, with a lease on some car parking spaces, and gave LPFA access to its playing field.
At least three attempts had previously been made to lease the Hall from the PCC, including one in 2008 by the Parish Council that made good headway, but all failed for various reasons. In 2015 the idea was revisited, with the Parish Council being approached by the vicar and PCC with a proposal for the PC to take over the running of the Hall. This was particularly because the burden of running the Hall had become too much for the PCC but also because it was thought that a wider range of funding grants could be accessed to update the building and facilities for village-wide use. The Parish Council subsequently agreed to take over a lease to the Hall with the purpose of improving it for the wider community.
The PHIP (Parish Hall Improvement Project) group was formed in 2015 to start fundraising for the Hall and in 2016, after PHIP had carried out a village-wide survey and agreement had been reached between the PCC and Parish Council to look into the options for a lease, a working group comprising representatives of the PCC, the Parish Council, the Parish Hall Committee and PHIP was established to carry this forward.
Unfortunately, a change in legislation meant that a normal lease could not be signed until a satisfactory Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) could be obtained: the Hall’s current energy performance is, unsurprisingly, very poor. A great deal of remedial work needs to be undertaken to gain the Certificate and this would not be cost-effective unless part of the full improvement works. Therefore, it was agreed that a binding three-year Agreement for Lease would be entered into so that the Hall could be improved prior to the Parish Council taking over the full lease, which in turn would be 10 days after a satisfactory EPC had been received. This Agreement for Lease was formally entered into in August 2021.
The Parish Council has now formed a working group to manage all elements of the building work.