LONGDON residents were this week enjoying their refurbished and extended village hall, which will offer innovative services to the community.

The hall re-opened on Monday after work costing £180,000 was completed in just six months.

It will be used as a centre for the entire village, as a pub, an after-school tuck shop for children, a place to have shopping delivered and a meeting place for groups and societies. People will also be able to access the internet there.

Jo Beswick, parish councillor and chairman of the hall's management committee, said: "It has been a long hard journey getting the funding together and there is a great feeling of relief that we've managed to complete the building."

She added that the hall would be a community centre for the village as Longdon does not have a village shop, and the church and school were the only other meeting places.

In spring the project was in danger of collapsing due to high building costs but the result of a letter campaign appealing to residents in the village for funds ensured an additional £15,000 was raised in just six weeks.

"This gave us so much confidence to proceed as it showed, in a very tangible form, that the village was behind us," said Mrs Beswick.

Grants from the Community Fund, Welcome to Our Future, Vital Villages, the Eveson Charitable Trust and local bodies funded the work at the village hall, which will be officially opened in the new year.

It now has a new kitchen, entrance foyer, disabled toilet and a meeting room. "It is more than half as big again as the original building," said Mrs Beswick.

A bar and additional storage space has been created in the old toilets, and it is hoped the hall will soon open as a pub for one night a week.

Volunteers are needed to run all of the planned projects in the hall. Anybody who can help should contact Jo Beswick on 01684 833642.