Villagers launch bid to build community venue (From Worcester News)

Villagers launch bid to build community venue

9:00pm Saturday 4th February 2012 in News By Robert Hale

VILLAGERS in Whittington, on the outskirts of Worcester, are taking the first steps towards building a new village hall.

The Whittington Village Hall Committee has just put in a planning application for a new hall, next to the existing one off Church Lane.

Committee chairman Roger Phillips said the planning application was just the first stage in the hall replacement, which is a major project for the village.

He said: “The old hall is extremely dilapidated and doesn’t conform to current thinking when it comes to health and safety, disabled access and environmental issues. It was second-hand when it went up in 1954, and it’s done the village proud since then, but it’s now showing its age.” The proposed new building is slightly larger than the existing hall, and will include, as well as the main hall space, a smaller meeting room, kitchen facilities and store rooms.

“The hall is heavily used, with play groups, dance classes, whist and bingo groups and lots of other users,” said Mr Phillips. “The proposed new hall will be next to the existing one, so we’ll still have a hall that can be used while the replacement is being built.”

He said that if the planning application was approved by Wychavon District Council that would be just the beginning of the hard work for the hall committee.

“We need planning consent before we can make a start on applying for grants, but getting grants won’t be easy. With the Olympics, and the economic situation, grant money is hard to get at the moment.” He said if grants were not accessible, the committee would consider self-build. He said: “That would bring down costs a lot, but we would need a lot of people on board.”

Mr Phillips declined to comment on the budget or the timescale of the project.