The parish council has been granted planning permission to build an extension to the Lounge/Bar of the Community Hall. It is now 5 years since the community hall opened its doors. Since then it has been extensively used for a wide range of activities. However demand has now reached a level where there is need to have another large room to hire out in addition to the main hall. Currently the Lounge/Bar only accommodates approx. 25 people at any one time and is therefore not large enough for anything other than a small meeting. It is proposed to extend the current lounge/bar area outwards towards Hawthorn drive increasing the size of the room substantially and once completed this room will be available to hire weekdays and selected evenings for meetings, training courses, activities and support groups. The main hall already has a busy programme of groups/clubs/organisations that book it regularly each week. With only a few hiring slots available daytime this extension is welcomed by the hirers that are being turned away almost daily and it will provide revenue to ensure the hall's financial viability over the coming years.
The parish council will be discussing the financing of the extension at its next meeting on Monday 10 February although it has already been discussed at previous meetings that the funding is to be partly from the hall's reserve fund together with a loan to be sought from the Public Works Loan Board. It is expected that repayment of this loan will be met from the additional hiring fees that the new extension will bring in.... for more information do come along to the next parish council meeting on Monday 10 February when this matter is to be discussed and formally agreed.