A village hall is facing closure within three years unless it can boost its income to meet spiralling running costs, officials said today.

Soaring utility bills have heaped pressure on bosses at Childs Ercall Jubilee Hall, in the village near Market Drayton, to attract more users or face the prospect of closure. Now they have issued a desperate plea for more people to make use of the hall as they fight to keep the facility afloat.

It is owned by the Childs Ercall Community Association and is on land belonging to the parish council, which also uses it for regular meetings.

The parish council is paid a peppercorn rent by CECA.

Lynda Drake, who chairs the association, said: “Two or three groups that used to use the hall have now finished as they had problems with getting new members to join them.

“We try to keep our prices really low and use a flat fee system to make hiring it as simple as possible, but numbers are dropping.

“We’ve changed suppliers for various things to try and keep our bills down but it might still be hard to stay open.

“With our present running costs, unless we can get more people using it then we think we have maybe three years left before it would have to close. We really need people to start booking it regularly now.”

She added the hall, which can hold up to 150 people, is a perfect venue for children’s parties, performing arts groups, exercise classes and other events.

Treasurer Norman Drake said: “Attendance has fallen off rapidly in the last few months and we do not want the hall to close due to lack of funds.”

He added the hall, which last had a major revamp about 28 years ago, is expected to play a key role in the village’s celebrations for the Queen’s diamond jubilee. Forthcoming events include a Valentine’s evening on February 18 from 7.30pm and new yoga classes on Monday mornings and Thursday evenings.

For details call (01952) 840475 or e-mail cecajubileehall@btinternet.com