OVER 30 people dropped into the consultation session for Westbury Parish Hall on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June.
Visitors were able to see the plans for the hall which have been developed by the working group over the past two years in response to conversations with current and potential users of the hall. Members of the planning group were on hand to answer questions and explain the proposals in detail.
Those that came were asked to comment on the proposals and how they would like the hall to be used by the people of Westbury. 100% of the responses returned supported the proposals.
Comments from visitors included, “I’m very impressed with the plans, clearly a lot of work and thought have gone into them. We need accessible, flexible venues this side of town”, and “Sensible and logical improvement to a superb old building, not to do this work would be a terrible shame and great waste.’
The plans include redeveloping the hall to provide a multi-purpose, flexible and modern space for young people and others to enjoy and the adding of an upper floor to create three new self-contained meeting rooms.
The parish hall will be celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2023 and the parish hall redevelopment group say that the building is badly in need of renovation, with the roof, masonry, windows and doors all urgently needing attention. They say that the inside of the kitchen and toilets are also inadequate, and the heating system needs to be replaced and that the need for the work is increasingly urgent.
Beth Thomas, churchwarden of All Saints’ Church and the chair of the redevelopment group said, “We were incredibly pleased with the positive response of those who took the time to find out more about our proposals. Now the hard work starts to raise the necessary funds.”
The group working on the redevelopment will be submitting a planning application this summer and begin the work to raise the necessary funds for the work which are likely to be in the region of £700,000.
The plans are on show in All Saints’ Church until the end of June if you wish to find out more and make your thoughts known.
