There was a wedding reception at our local community centre today. Very nice for the family concerned I am sure, but not much fun for mine.

Our local centre is an independant charity, managed by a cross-section of local people on behalf of the churches who own it. Jayne chairs the committee which manages it and I am co-opted (roped in) as treasurer. At the moment we have some staffing issues, we have been without a caretaker/premises officer for quite a while, and the manager has just gone on maternity leave. Normally the caretaker would go round to open up the hall for people who hire it for parties, and go round to lock up afterwards. In the meantime we sometimes volunteer to help out by locking up.

Today’s do started at some point in the afternoon and was supposed to finish at 11:45 pm. That is the time they were supposed to be all out, hall tidied, cleaned up, furniture put back etc. Out of respect for people living nearby, we don’t hire the hall out any later than 12, and a condition of hire is that the music finishes at 11.

We turned up at 11:43 to find the party still going, music blasting out, and the whole place heaving with people. While they were winding down, Jayne checked the rest of the centre and found out that one of the other rooms had not been locked properly and that the wedding party had taken chairs and tables from there, and also used the room, as the bins were full, cake on the floor, confetti everywhere, and so on. So J started clearing that up while waiting for the guests to clear out. They left the main hall in a mess too… furniture was not put away: just piled up a bit. The room stank of beer, probably because there was so much spilled on the floor.

Bearing in mind that the church uses the room for Sunday School the next morning, we tried to clear up as best we could, but decided to give up at 01:40 after getting all the furniture sorted and one of the halls clean. This is one lot who will not be getting their deposit back! Apart from anything else, they had the fire escape open all night, which will not have been popular with the neighbours who will have had to put up with the noise.

We could not help comparing this function to the kiddies’ birthday party a few weeks ago. When we turned up on time to lock up, the Asian family were already out and waiting for us, and the hall was probably cleaner than when they went in. We said at the time that its a pity they can’t hire the place every week.