Open Village Meeting – 8th February 2017 @ 7.30pm – Ixworth Village Hall
The changes to the Village Hall and its organisation affect the whole of the Village of Ixworth and Ixworth Thorpe. The Hall, the land on which it stands and playing fields were gifted, in 1928, to the Village by Charles Jiggens a local farmer and benefactor. The current Village Hall and the land including the Playing Fields are therefore, in effect, the property of the Village and are registered as such with the Charity Commissioners as the Jiggen’s Village Hall Charity. The current management is in the hands of the Trustees of that Charity who hold it for the Village.
Recent changes in legislation have made it possible to register The Trust and its Trustees as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The Trustees of the present trust have decided that The Ixworth Village Hall Trust should follow the path that path and the Village Hall management will become the charitable equivalent of a Limited Company. This also means that the hall itself and the land surrounding it will be registered with the Land Registry and be the property of the Trust rather than a Custodian Trustee.
This however does not alter the fact that the trust is held for the benefit of the village as a whole. In the words of the trust document: “The object of the trust shall be the provision and maintenance of a Village Hall., playing field, and the facilities ancillary thereto, for the use of the inhabitants of the Parish of Ixworth”. Except that we now wish to add the residents of Ixworth Thorpe to the beneficiaries.
So the question now is “what do the inhabitants want?” The Trustees have drawn up a plan of improvements to the Hall and its facilities. These plans will be displayed and the changes that will occur when becoming a CIO further explained at an open meeting.
