THE Leigh Park Community Association (LPCA) hope to have some exciting news regarding the commencement of the build of the new community hall at their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 21st September, 7.30pm-9.00pm.
They are inviting local residents along to the AGM where they can find out more about the plans and appoint new committee members and fundraisers.
As part of a section 106 agreement between Wiltshire Council and builders Persimmon, Leigh Park is to have a new community hall built near the Tesco Express. Once the centre is built, it will be handed over to the LPCA to allow the community to run it in accordance with its needs.
But it is a project that has been some 12 years in the making, and members of the association are frustrated at the delay in the last hurdle; the time it is taking for the date of the new build to be set.
John Rogers, chair of the LPCA said, “We’re trying to get the unitary authority to get a meeting together, we’ve been waiting several months and nothing’s happened. [Town councillor] Russell Hawker has pushed them to get us a meeting before September 21st. We are just waiting for unitary – we can’t progress with anything else until we have the start date and completion date.”
For John Rogers, the new building is something the estate’s community really needs. “There’s nothing here, despite the growth of the Leigh Park estate,” he said. “You’ve got to go into Westbury, or to Westbury Leigh Church which is limited in size. Dilton Marsh has got one hall but that’s usually fully booked.
“The thinking was with the growth of the Leigh Park estate, there’s nowhere to go without having to travel. This site has flat ground and good parking. People have more and more need of entertainment and don’t want to travel with the cost of fuel.”
