Cowling residents fear for the future of their village hall which is in urgent need of extensive repairs.

At a meeting on Tuesday, Cowling village hall managers agreed that the parish council - the hall's trustees - would be looking at a bill of around £100,000 just to bring the building up to standard - not including disabled access - for the next five to ten years.

They also say the hall's future could not be guaranteed even after this period of time.

The options facing the managers is to either knock the existing hall down and re-build a new one on the same site with planning permission or to sell the hall as it stands and then build a new hall somewhere else in the village.

Repairs to the hall include complete re-wiring, roof work, wall repairs, moving the toilets, disabled access involving lowering the floor, and rebuilding the kitchen.

In a village appraisal, sent out in June, 68 per cent voted in favour of looking to build a new village hall.

Resident Lesley Airey says: "A list of repairs in need of doing to the hall has been compiled. It's not in a very good state. It's been here for around 150 years and used to be a club for one of the political parties.

"Personally, I think we should have a new hall. As it is now, it doesn't have a public entertainment licence and is only really used for meetings."

A valuation is to be carried out on the hall in the near future and it is hoped that this will help to clarify the financial position with regard to funding from the Lotteries Board.

The managers will next meet on Wednesday September 2 at 7pm in the village hall. Anyone who is interested is welcome to attend and contribute their views.

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