Wetherby village hall set to undergo refurbishment thanks to £100,000 grant

Among the grants received by Walton Village Hall were £70,000 from FCC Communities Foundation, £26,600 from the Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund, £9,900 from the National Lottery Community Fund and further grants from other sources.

The money will be used to build an extension to house new toilet facilities, including those for the disabled, replace the hall floor, improve insulation and install a new infra-red heating system.

Brian Eldred, chair of trustees of Walton Village Hall, Wetherby, believes the facility will make a huge difference to the lives of people living in the area.

Mr Eldred said: “This project will provide a real boost to the people of Walton.

"The village hall is a wonderful building with great charm and character, but it was built in 1847, has outdated facilities, a rotting floor, poor insulation and heating and a lack of storage space.

"It’s fantastic that FCC Communities Foundation, ACRE, the National Lottery and the other funders have awarded us this money.

"We plan to start the work in the new year, and we’re really looking forward to our improvement projects taking shape over the next few months.’’

It is hoped that the new facilities will be ready to use by April 2024.

FCC Communities Foundation is a not-for-profit business that awards grants for community projects through the Landfill Communities Fund

Richard Smith, FCC Communities Foundation senior grant manager, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting the new extension and refurbishment works at Walton Village Hall and pleased our funding will make such a difference to so many groups of people across Wetherby.

"FCC Communities Foundation is always happy to consider grant applications for projects that benefit local communities and we’re looking forward to this one having a positive impact very soon.”

Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund: In May 2022, Defra announced a £3 million Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund to mark Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. The fund is administered by ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England)

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched its new strategy, ‘It starts with community’, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.

As part of this, the fund has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. Thanks to them, last year The National Lottery Community Fund was able to distribute over half a billion pounds (£615.4 million) of life-changing funding to communities. To find out more visit www.TNLCommunityFund.org.uk

During the building work the hall will remain open for users at evenings and weekends, apart from a period in February and March when the internal work will be carried out.

Alternative facilities have been offered to regular users for this period.

Further details of the project will soon be available on the village hall website at: https://waltonvillagehallwetherby.org/