Village hall could be transformed with £40,000 grant
A village hall could soon be transformed after being awarded a grant of nearly £40,000.
Audlem Public Hall, near Market Drayton, has been awarded £39,580 from the Big Lottery Fund which will now go towards a project to build a two-storey annexe to the hall which will cost more than £500,000.
The annex hopes to provide facilities for the youth club, changing rooms for sports groups and a fitness room. All of the rooms will be non-specific so they can be used for a host of different purposes.
Roland Hall, chair of the Audlem Public Hall Annexe committee (APHAx), said: "We've been working on this project to bring better sport and recreational facilities to the village for a number of years.
"We really now think we've got take off and it's going to transform the facilities of the village.
"I am delighted, we have been working on it for a long while and it is going to be something that is much needed for all ages in the village.
"We have got through this crucial stage in the funding. We now will be working with the lottery fund to hopefully get through the next stage which would give us in excess of half a million pounds.
"The money we have got this time is to develop it further with them, hopefully they will like what we are doing and give us the full amount. The good thing about this project is that it has come from the community and it is something the community wants. It has been a real team effort."
The group hopes the annexe will be in use by autumn 2016 and spring 2017, but there are still lots of things to be sorted out before it is open for business.
In total, the project will cost about £650,000 with the committee hoping most will come from the Big Lottery Fund.
The plans are now being developed to submit the project to stage three, and the architect can proceed to the point where building regulations have been obtained and documents prepared for going out to tender.
A statement from the committee said: "The half a million pounds needed to build the annexe is not yet assured, but the BLF have indicated they like our project and they will be closely liaising with us during the final stage of the bid.
"So perhaps we can now, for the first time since the project was first mooted some three years ago, start to talk about when rather than if the annexe is built."
