PROGRESS
Planning Permission Granted!
After some eight months of waiting for the outcome of an application to the National Lottery for funding, the Hall Committee's hopes of Lottery cash were dashed. Despite submitting what the independent assessor admitted was an excellent application for a replacement village hall, ours was not thought to be an urgent case, and our lottery bid, for which we had such high expectations, failed.
Hall Secretary Mrs Val Gill said: "We are bitterly disappointed because we were advised to keep our bid below £500,000 so we put in a carefully-worded request for just £250,000. Now we must find some way of raising that enormous sum ourselves. But in spite of this setback we are absolutely determined to have our replacement hall, because it's so important to our scattered community."
For the past few years, as the building approaches the end of its life, the committee has spent all income from rentals on repairs. Now the hall itself is no longer viable and an appeal has been launched to raise the money needed for a replacement. By the time of the failed Lottery bid the Hall Committee had been busy fundraising and had £6,000 hard-won money in the bank. Funds have continued to build up since then, from both fund-raising activities at the Hall, donations and pledges very gratefully received, with the figure as at end of June 2010 standing at some £53,066.
But as Mrs Gill adds: "There's still a long, long way to go to reach our aim of just over a quarter of a million pounds for a modern, sustainable, low-running-cost building. But we shall succeed; we have to, for the sake of future generations. All of us that use the hall love attending the clubs that meet there."
Real progress was made during February 2010 when the planning application was submitted to the Council, together with a cheque for £848, then in April we heard the plans had been approved!
This is the plan submitted to the council for approval.
Below are a couple of computer-generated images of what the proposed new Hall will look like:
Side elevation.
End elevation.
View from above.