7.30PM Wednesday 6 February.

A meeting will be held in the public rooms on the revitalisation of the hall and the plans will be shown and be open for discussion.

It is very important that as many residents and village hall users attend this meeting, to see what is proposed and to make any comments before plans are finalised. It is going to be very difficult to get funding for such an ambitious project. Organsations we will be approaching to seek funding will want evidence of solid community support – this is an opportunity to show it.

The project so far has been promoted by a large and enthusiastic Action Group. This has met regularly to generate ideas, produce the brief for the architects, work with the architects in generating the proposed scheme and organise an ongoing series of local fundraising activities.

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSED REVITALISATION

The conception for the revitalisation project is simple:
- to provide a Village Hall which is an attractive, accessible and efficient building at the centre of community life, not just for now but for the next 100 years
- to take advantage of the Village Hall as a potential source of income to support community activities, services and projects
- to do this while retaining main elements of the existing structure and traditional appearance of the building.

THE SCHEME PROPOSED

A brief for the project was developed by the Action Group based on many ideas submitted by the community, by village organisations, by users of the village hall and by schoolchildren.

The Architects (Green Design Partnership, Cockermouth) have worked closely to this brief. They have produced a scheme which provides the facilities required, with a design which blends the traditional and the modern.

The plan involves retention of the main hall pretty much as it is, but “wrapping” around it a new extension including an additional floor. The facilities include:
- a coffee shop/gallery on the new floor, taking advantage of the views down St John's in the Vale; this is a crucial element of the overall scheme, allowing the Hall to be used to generate income from visitors as well as from local people
- three additional meeting rooms, including one which is envisaged to be a gym/keep fit area and one on a mezzanine floor above the main hall
- new toilets upstairs and downstairs, with dedicated disabled toilets and showers
- a new kitchen linked to the main hall and to a downstairs meeting room
- a new pedestrian entrance set back from the main road
- complete accessibility for wheelchairs, with siding doors, a ramp to the rear and an internal lift
- high-standard insulation, plus solar panels etc, to minimise running costs
- local or recycled material as much as reasonably possible.

In terms of external appearance, the front of the building will be relatively unaffected except for the remodelled entrance; however, the rear of the building will look completely different.

Plans of the proposals for the Ground Floor and First Floor are included in this magazine, plus artists impressions of the front and the rear of the building. However, if you want to see full details (including a “virtual tour”), come to the meeting on 6 February.

FUNDING

The proposed scheme will cost a lot of money – but this is because it reflects what the village requires if it is to provide a useful facility for many years to come.

Below are the architects images of the plans for the village hall.