£22,000 boost for church hall

A £22,000 grant will help Stockton Heath Methodist Church improve its community hall in Walton Road.
The money from The Veolia Environmental Trust, via the Landfill Communities Fund, will help the continued development of the hall into a more comfortable, energy efficient and flexible venue.
This stage of the project will see the construction of a new access ramp and porch for the hall and will take approximately five weeks to complete. The new, safer ramp will guide pedestrians away from the car park.
The new porch will have two sets of doors giving the venue advantages.
Kit Heald, from the church, said: “Users with pushchairs, wheelchairs or carrying bulky items will be shielded from bad weather while they unlock or open the doors and it will help retain heat. The locking system will prevent the doors being accidentally opened from the inside by toddlers.
“And the posters and leaflets inside the building will not now be blown all over by gusts of wind!”
A variety of fundraising events have been held for the project during the past three years.
Kit said: “There have been many creative ideas such as an Open Gardens Day, a wedding event, various concerts and a talents event where church members have been given sums of money as seed corn to start a venture.
“Over £1,000 has already been raised with much more still to come in through the sale of dolls’ clothes, bags and holdalls, bird boxes, lemon cheese, paintings to name just a few of the wide variety of talents. Trips on the Llangollen railway have contributed and over the winter we are having a season of Tea Dances.”
From the proceeds of its fundraising the church gives 10 per cent to other charitable causes.
Plans are for the hall to be developed during the next two years as a major community resource in the village.