ARE YOU THINKING OF HIRING THE HALL?  IMPORTANT ELECTRICAL SAFETY NOTICE FROM 2025

It is important that all mains-powered electrical equipment used in the hall is safe for a number of reasons:

• Your safety is vital and defective equipment can cause serious injury or death
• Defective equipment is a fire risk
• Use of defective equipment can invalidate an insurance claim either for you or for us.

There is no legally binding agreement in the UK for how to define that equipment is safe from defects but the nationally agreed standard is the Electrical Equipment Test or EET (formally known as PAT Testing). It is for these reasons that we perform regular checks on all of our equipment but also that we require that any mains-powered equipment that is brought into the hall either by you or on your behalf (eg DJs, Bouncy Castle suppliers or by a speaker that you have booked) is either less than one year old or has a valid EET/PAT testing certificate attached. 

We place this requirement in the Terms and Conditions of Hire that hirers must accept when making a booking and it will be the hirer's responsibility to comply.

Anyone (you, the hirer, visitors, contractors or speakers) who brings mains-powered electrical equipment for use at the hall must comply with this requirement, so planning and confirming well in advance is strongly advised.

Most reputable contractors will already have their equipment tested and be prepared to show you the test evidence as they will know that this is a common requirement in many venues. Be most careful to check with private individuals as they may not be aware of this and it may take a few days for them to arrange testing for equipment more than 1 year old.  A common area that is missed is a speaker who brings in their own laptop, sound system and projector.

Please do not ignore this notice when considering a booking, both for the attendees' safety and the safety of our hall.  Random spot checks that find non-compliant equipment will result in it being banned immediately and this could jeopardise the success of a booked event. 

Please plan ahead and avoid that!