We made the front page of the Kirky Herald!
Our meeting the deadline for offers for Lenzie Public Hall and submitting on 30 January to East Dunbartonshire Council (EDC) an offer for the hall made the front page of the Kirky Herald, with our full story inside on a double-page spread. Great coverage for awareness raising of our project and our wish to bring the hall back into use for the benefit of all.
Our application has been validated & published on EDC’s website
We made our offer by way of a Community Asset Transfer (CAT).
There’s rules about how CAT applications work1.
Under these rules EDC next needed to:
- validate our application (In other words, confirm our application met the rules and that we’d provided all the information needed to make a decision. The day EDC does this is the validation date.)
- publish details of our offer on their website
- make a decision on our application within 6 months of the validation date.
On 27 February 2026 we received the great news that our application had been validated. The validation letter, however, informed us that EDC had received another competing CAT application and, given this, asked us to agree to an extension until 31 December 2026 for determining our application. We met with EDC. After learning more about the reasons for the extension request ( so a decision can be made by EDC on both CAT applications at the same time, challenges including resources, the upcoming election and summer recess) as well as receiving reassures that EDC would continue to undertake regular inspections of the the hall and manage elements of deterioration as best as possible during the requested extension, we agreed to the extension.
Of added reassurance and, as per the rules about how CATs work, EDC confirmed in the validation letter that it now considered itself prohibited from selling, or otherwise disposing of the land until all CAT applications received had been concluded.
The details of our CAT application are now on EDC’s website (see Current Asset Transfer Requests), as well as those of the competing application.
Some repairs to the hall have been carried out
For our CAT application we commissioned a building condition survey of the building. Given: 1) we care lots about the building; and 2) EDC’s reassurances to manage elements of deterioration of the building as best possible, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the building as well as seeking for EDC to carry out some works identified in our building condition survey as needed to maintain the safety and water tightness of the building. As a result of this, works have been carried out to the rear chimney, the roof and gutters and a large window in the main hall.
We’ve visited similar projects
We’ve visited a number of similar projects locally. The people involved have been extremely welcoming and generous in sharing with us both their successes and their challenges. In this same vein, our next project is a visit to the Millport Town Hall to see how they’ve managed the development of their Hall into such a success story. . The similarity to our own Hall is distinctly spooky but the end results are inspirational. We’ll post some photos after our visit.
A start to our funding
We’ve been successful at obtaining funding from EDC through their Local Community Grant Fund towards the costs of a community worker (£2,200) and project manager (£4,666). To make this project work we need lots more funding but this is a great start and we thank EDC for this. We await EDC’s decision on our CAT application before finalising our plans for the use of this funding.
Members of our team have also attended both the SCVO Gathering and EDC’s recent funders’ fair, seeking to learn more about current funding trends and opportunities.
What next?
Both CAT applications for the hall are due to be considered by EDC’s Place Neighbourhood and Corporate Assets Committee before 31 December 2026. See our separate new post for more details.
We very much keep our fingers-crossed for a favourable outcome.