Community Halls – how Council’s hire fees and charges work

Community facilities are very important places for the community to celebrate, gather and support each other. They represent a significant community investment, and it is important that all community groups have maximum accessibility and use.

Fairfield City Council is committed to ensuring that community facilities are accessed by all members of the community. To maximise the use of community facilities including halls, the pricing for casual hire aims to ensure that facilities are booked seven days a week. 

Hire fees and charges for the use of community facilities considers fairness and equity for both individuals and the community as a whole. Fees and charges applied to community facilities are significantly subsidised by the Council to make facilities affordable.

The categories of hire fees and charges are:

• social - The price reflects the high demand period from 3pm Friday afternoons through to the weekend. Many of our residents prefer community venues for family or significant celebrations, often cooking their own food. For many residents, only community facilities provide a gambling and alcohol free venue to host events.
• community - The price reflects lower demand times as well as a significant subsidy for charities or auspiced community groups who deliver services and support to meet broad ranging social, welfare and cultural needs in the community.

Social hire charges help to offset the community hire fees subsidy. Requests by community groups to access facilities during the social hire charge high demand period would mean the subsidy for all community users is reduced and community hirers will need to pay more.

To ensure fair and equitable access to all community users and charities, discounts to the social hire fees are not provided. Instead, community facility users with limited funds are encouraged to consider lower demand times with the more affordable and subsidised community hire fee.

Council invests over $5 million a year to keep community facilities well maintained and clean. Hire charges are a small but important part in keeping community facilities looking their best for everyone's enjoyment.