The Committee at Pitstone Memorial Hall Charity have recently been successful in their bid to obtain funding from two grant suppliers, towards refurbishment work to the kitchen and toilets in the original part of the hall building.
This project received £15,151 of funding from the Aylesbury Vale Community Chest towards refitting the toilets, kitchen and insulating the loft of the main function hall. The Big Lottery Fund awarded £7,200 towards the renovation and refurbishment of the main building toilets.
Although minor redecoration work had been undertaken in recent years to these areas the overall situation has been that no major upgrade to these particular facilities had taken place for well over 40 years making them look tired unattractive and at times simply not functional to the many users and hirers within the community. These major works form the final phase of a longer refurbishment project to bring the hall facilities up to modern standards which has seen the installation of dedicated disabled toilet facilities, provision of baby change facilities, a microphone system for the main hall, disabled access ramps to all entrances & exits, conversion of all exit doors & internal doors to meet the latest Fire Regulations, installation of CCTV and a fire detection system, refitting & refurbishing the changing rooms and referee room, replacement soffits and roof repairs, replacement windows and the installation of Wi-Fi.
Chairman, Mark Roberts, says “As Trustees we are naturally delighted and grateful that both the Community Chest and the Big Lottery Fund have chosen to fund these works which will undoubtedly be welcomed within the Community and will serve all hirers and local groups well into the future, as well as to encourage a wider audience to consider the Pitstone Memorial Hall as a venue of choice.”
The charity would also like to thank all those who supported the Party in the Park fundraising event last summer, including the Pitstone Social Club. This event raised over £3,000 towards this refurbishment project at the Memorial Hall. This year’s event is being held on 12 July 2014 where the charity hope that the whole community will come along to view the improvements delivered through this project for themselves.
Works on the toilets and kitchen have now commenced and it is anticipated that the project will completed in four to six weeks.
More about the Pitstone Memorial Hall Charity:
Registered Charity Number 300318. Founded 13 September 1921 to provide and maintain the village hall for meetings, classes, recreation and leisure with the object of improving the conditions of life for the inhabitants of our rural community. The hall, in its current location, was built in 1972. For further information please contact the secretary.
More about the Community Chest:
This project received funding from the Community Chest, a grants scheme for community projects run jointly by AVDC and VAHT. If you would like more information about the grants available, please call the Community Chest Grants Officer, Sarah Rothwell, on 01296 585634.
More about the Big Lottery Fund:
The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
The Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 we have awarded close to £6bn.
The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.