As of the 14th August 2020, all community centres, village halls, church halls and other community centres owned or controlled by a public authority or a body of persons which may provide for the physical, social, cultural or intellectual development or welfare of the community, have been able to open for some permitted activities.
Whilst community centres, village halls, and other multi-use community facilities support a wide range of local activity and are allowed to open, their communal nature also makes them places that are vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus. As such, organisers of these multi purpose community centres must ensure that ‘gatherings’ are not permitted within the premises and must also ensure that where an activity is taking place at the premises that it meets the definition of a ‘reasonable excuse’. Full details of what is defined as a gathering and considered a reasonable excuse is available on the legislation.gov.uk website.
Examples of activities permitted under the regulations include:
Exercise classes – no more than 30 people
Dance classes – no more than 30 people
Childcare facility
Children’s holiday club
Supervised activities for children, for example: scouts, guides, brownies etc
Wedding parties and funeral celebrations – no more than 30 people
Medical or health services for example: Slimming world, counselling. These must be by appointment on a 1 to 1 basis.
Donate blood
Food bank
You cannot open for the following activities:
Dog obedience classes
Meetings / AGMS
Merched y Wawr / WI groups
Indoor food market
Drama group
Choir practice
Gardening club
Educational classes
Art class
Band practice
Sewing/knitting club
Birthday parties
This is not an exhaustive list of activities that can and cannot take place in a community centre / village hall.
All reasonable measures must be taken to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus by:
maintaining a distance of 2 metres between people both inside the building and whilst queuing outside.
limiting close face to face interaction and maintaining hygiene
providing information to those entering or working at the premises about how to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus.
As part of the NHS Wales test, trace and protect service you must collect contact information from anyone attending the premises and retain it for 21 days. Further guidance on how this should be carried out is available on the Welsh Government website.
We will continue to update this page as we receive further guidance from Welsh Government.