Legionella risk assessment for Community centres

Updated 12 September 2026

Community centres and village halls share a distinctive pattern: many different user groups, an unpredictable weekly rhythm, and no single person who sees the whole building. A hall might host a playgroup every morning, a lunch club twice a week, evening classes, and private parties at weekends, with the kitchen, toilets and changing rooms used intensively for an hour and then left standing. Showers in sports changing rooms are the classic problem outlet — used on match days, idle the rest of the week, and exactly the kind of aerosol-producing fixture that needs a documented flushing regime.

The building stock is usually older and altered many times: converted schools, former institutes, post-war halls with extensions added decade by decade. That means redundant pipework, capped dead legs, cold water tanks in awkward roof spaces, and long runs to extensions. The cleaner's cupboard tap and any outside tap are easy to forget and belong on the flushing list alongside the showers. School-holiday periods change the usage pattern sharply and should be treated like the summer shutdown in a school, with a recommissioning flush before busy periods resume.

The governance question is usually the hardest part. Many centres are owned by a council or charity but run day to day by a volunteer management committee, and the duty follows control of the premises rather than ownership on paper. The committee needs to establish in writing who the responsible person is, who carries out the weekly checks, and what the letting agreement tells hirers. A short written scheme and a wall-mounted log sheet in the cleaner's cupboard is often the whole of the practical control — but someone has to be named to do it.

Is it legally required?

A community centre with paid staff is an employer under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and section 4 of the Act also places duties on whoever controls premises made available to others as a place of work, which covers halls hired to tutors, clubs and outside caterers working events. ACOP L8 and HSG274 apply as usual. Where a council owns the building, the lease or management agreement should state how the duty is split between the council and the management committee — and if it does not, that ambiguity is itself worth recording in the risk assessment.

Who is the duty holder?

The duty holder is whoever has control of the premises or the water system. For community centres premises, this is usually the employer, owner, landlord, or managing agent. The duty cannot be contracted out: you can hire a water hygiene consultant, but the legal responsibility still sits with you.

If you are unsure who holds the duty for your premises, see: Who is responsible for a legionella risk assessment?

What the assessment should cover

ACOP L8 sets out five things a suitable and sufficient assessment must do:

1. Identify and assess sources of risk across the whole water system, including stored hot and cold water, dead legs, rarely used outlets, and any equipment that generates aerosols
2. Produce a written scheme for preventing or controlling the risk, with specific tasks, temperatures, and frequencies
3. Implement, manage, and monitor the scheme in practice, not just on paper
4. Keep records of the assessment, the scheme, monitoring results, and any remedial action taken
5. Appoint a competent person (often called the "responsible person") to be accountable for the scheme

Specific water system risks to check

For community centres premises, assessors typically pay close attention to:

• Hot water storage temperatures (calorifiers must reach 60°C throughout)
• Hot water distribution temperatures (50°C within one minute at outlets)
• Cold water storage tank condition, lid seal, and temperature (below 20°C)
• Dead legs, redundant pipework, and little-used outlets
• Shower heads, flexible hoses, and thermostatic mixing valves
• Any cooling tower, evaporative condenser, or spa pool (these are notifiable to the local authority under the Notification of Cooling Towers and Evaporative Condensers Regulations 1992)

How often to review

There is no fixed legal interval, but ACOP L8 requires that the assessment is reviewed regularly and whenever there is reason to believe it may no longer be valid. For most community centres premises, that means at least every 12 months and sooner after any of the following:

• Changes to the water system (new pipework, fittings, equipment)
• Changes to the use of the building or the number of occupants
• A positive legionella test result or a case of Legionnaires' disease linked to the premises
• Prolonged periods of low occupancy or system shutdown (a risk during holidays, term breaks, or refurbishment)
• New guidance from HSE

Typical cost

A professional legionella risk assessment for community centres premises typically costs between £200 and £500, depending on the size of the building, the number of water outlets, and whether there are any cooling towers or evaporative condensers (these add significantly to the cost because of the statutory inspection regime).

Use our cost calculator for an estimate based on your specific water system.