Holidays over

What a time to choose to go to the Cotswalds. However I got home before the total deluge – and straight into a row about hall booking fees.

Someone who shall be nameless ( literally as no one is admitting responsibility) sent out a letter to Maybole community groups saying that their charges for using the Town Hall were going to rocket.In some cases this meant going from paying nothing to £8 an hour.

Understandably uproar followed. Groups from pensioners who play carpet bowls to the Brownies could see a bleak future ahead; Cathie Jamieson MSP visited the town giving them her support; a meeting was called for last Monday night.

In the role of Daniel was Pat Whelan – he council officer in charge of the department which sent out the offending letter. The `lions` were representatives of all the local groups who use the hall and understandable they were raring for a fight.

Pat Whelan had to admit that the letter should never have been sent out – and told everyone there to ignore what they had been told . It was back to square one.

He explained that different halls are charged at different rates throughout South Ayrshire and they were trying to get a system in place where all are treated equally. And hall charges will in fact come before the Leadership Panel of the council at the end of August.

From there, any decisions they make will go before the Community Services Scrutiny Panel – which will do `as it says on the tin` - scrutinise the decision and decide if it`s fair. The good news for Maybole is that three of the four members of that panel are local councillors, Brian Connelly, Sandra Goldie and myself and if we weren`t aware of it before, after last week`s meeting we certainly know now how important a role the Town Hall plays in local life.

And we know it must be affordable.

The main thing for now is that the price hike as been put on hold, autumn classes and groups can put their programmes in place – they are not going to be priced out at the end of August.

What about the future? We need to wait and see, but be assured the local councillors will be fighting to keep the hall open and accessible to everyone.