Hoole villagers' will see 10-year dream of new community hub finally come true

South Ribble Council has stepped in with a £50,000 grant and loan of £150,000 to complete phase one of building a new village hall off Liverpool Old Road to a “really good standard”, including landscaping and car parking.

The borough council’s money has been added to a pot of £400,000 already raised by a local lottery, a buy-a-brick campaign, donations, social events and money from selling land to replace the dilapidated 70-year-old building currently on the site.

Alan Taylor, trustee of Hoole Village Memorial Hall, said: “The £400,000 was sufficient to get the construction underway and achieve a usable building, but we would still have had to rely on further fundraising to cover a number of items such as interior painting and decorating, floor finishes, external landscaping and the demolition of the existing hall.”

Mr Taylor said he was worried donation fatigue had crept in, before leader of South Ribble Borough Council, Paul Foster stepped in to help.

He said: “These are decent blokes who have decided to help us out properly.”

Foundations and the floor slab of the timber-framed building have been built, but work has had to stop because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Once completed, the building will house meeting rooms for community and private functions, a snooker table and baby changing facilities. A further £300,000 needs to be raised to complete phase two, which includes extra meeting rooms and extra snooker facilities.

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