Delight as village hall refurb is complete

Buy photos » John Redman, chairman of the village hall committee, Gordon Bunker, managing director of Worcester Renewables and George Mackison, operations director at Welcome To Our Future stand outside the newly refurbished village hall. Photo by Marcus Mingins 3012010MMR Order this picture online at www.buyphotos247.com

THE MAN in charge of a six-figure refurbishment of Harvington Village Hall has said he hopes it will help bring many more people into the village.

Final improvements to the hall have now been put in place with new a photovoltaic system installed on the 70-year-old building which helps generate electric into the building whenever it is light.

The village hall has been undergoing a full refurbishment and extension project for the past three years with the work being carried out by Harvington residents after being suggested and designed by John Redman who is chairman of the village hall management committee.

The total cost of the refurbishment is about £160,000 with Severn Waste Environmental Fund's Welcome To Our Future project contributing a total of more than £30,000 towards it.

Grants from the Welcome To Our Future fund are awarded to organisations for projects which promote sustainability and community benefit and for energy efficiency measures for village halls and other community buildings.

Mr Redman told the Observer: "We are delighted to have a new modern village hall here in Harvington. It looks great and visitors can't believe the difference from how it looked a few years back.

"The project has taken longer than usual because we decided to keep holding events there during the work because our village hall is a very active one.

"A few years back the hall was well past its best and it was feeling very sad and sorry for itself. But people still kept coming in for events. But now with this refurbishment we can host bigger events here and attract even more people into the village.

"Without the Severn Waste Environmental Fund's help this would not have been possible so we are extremely grateful to them for all what they have done. They do a great job around the county and their efforts need to be applauded,"

For more information about the Welcome To Our Future Fund visit www.wtof.org.uk.

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