Cowling looks like getting a brand new village hall following a meeting this week to discuss the future of the existing premises.

Thousands of pounds need to be spent on bringing the hall up to European standards.

And the people of the village have come out in favour of building a new one.

Cowling village hall celebrated its centenary in 1985 and was originally built as a Liberal Club and institute. It included a library and reading room, assembly hall and meeting room.

The building was used as a reception centre for evacuees during the war, and was also home to the popular dialect plays of local playwright Arthur Teal during the 1920s and 30s.

At a meeting of village hall managers on Tuesday, it was agreed the costs of keeping the existing hall going were not justified.

Trustees are looking at a bill in the region of £100,000 just to bring it up to standard for the next five to 10 years.

However, this would not include any disabled access to the top hall and the future of the hall would still not be guaranteed.

Two options are:

* knock down the existing hall and rebuild on the same site (although this option looks unlikely)

* sell the hall and buy some new land to build new premises.

A valuation of the building is to be carried out, and it is hoped this will lead to an application for National Lottery funding. Hall managers will meet again in public on September 2 at 7pm to discuss the issue further.

* An appeal to raise £10,000 to help pay for repairs to Sutton's St Thomas' Hall is in sight of its total.

So far £9,000 has been raised which will be used to foot the bill for repairs to the roof and internal decorations.

"People have responded magnificently," said Vicar of Sutton, the Rev Michael Cowgill.

"The hall is very well used by the community and it's quite an asset to the village."

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