Great Ellingham Recreation Centre
£1m plan for new village hall at Great Ellingham, near Attleborough
Dominic Bareham, senior reporter
Saturday, February 11, 2012
6:30 AM
Villagers had the opportunity to vote on a Norfolk village’s new £1m hall at a public meeting this week.
Up to 55 Great Ellingham residents were given two choices for a new building to replace the current ageing village hall in Watton Road at the recreation centre meeting on Wednesday.
One option was to keep using the current hall until the new facility had been built next door, then retain the current hall to be used as a pavilion by village sports teams, including football and cricket, while the new hall would accommodate the other village groups.
The other choice was to demolish the old building and move all the sports teams and village groups into the new facility.
Ann Milner, sub-committee chairman of the village hall building fund, said the visitors were given two stickers and had to put both on their preferred choice or one on each option if they were unsure.
She anticipated the total cost of the hall would be between £850,000 and £1m, but could not be certain until a definite plan for the hall was known. Of this, the sub-committee would need to raise 10pc of the total cost while the rest of the money would come from grant funding.
The new hall would be eco-friendly and use renewable energy, possibly from air or ground source heat pumps or solar panels.
Mrs Milner said the current hall was an old sports pavilion brought on the back of a lorry from north Norfolk and was not really suitable for the growing number of groups and clubs in the village, including a pre-school, bingo club and a chit chat centre which enables residents to catch up over a cup of tea.
The results of the consultation are due by the end of this month and Mrs Milner said the sub-committee would not be taking long to draw up plans for the new hall once the preferred option was known.
She added: “About 55 people attended the meeting, which on a cold night we felt was absolutely brilliant. Great Ellingham has many younger residents and a vibrant community spirit and that is why we wanted a building to reflect and accommodate that.”
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6 comments
Well now, perhaps Great Ellingham is village that thousands of people have not heard of.It is a village that over the years has grown quite considerably with families from far and wide. I have no doubt in my mind that most of the folks wanting this new hall are not all Great Ellingham born and bred. £1m in this day and age sounds a great deal of money but to put it into perspective people are paying that sort of cash for houses. Also to those that mock ..itsme73.. The E.D.P. is a paper reporting news on East Anglia, not just Norwich. Because as most will realise Norwich although some would believe it is not the centre of the universe. The chit chat centre, have never used it but to those that are living on their own or perhaps recently bereaved, what better than to have somewhere to go for company and share problems. I do not live in Great Ellingham but given the chance I would up sticks and go there today. The name says it all Great Ellingham. I hope you get your new hall.
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codcatcher
Saturday, February 11, 2012
great ellingham pop: 1,108 greater norwich pop: 259,100 norfolk pop: 862,400 and if we are talking poultry andre: uk chicken pop: 174,000,000 the evening news is turning into a parish newsletter; must try harder.
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itsme73
Saturday, February 11, 2012
If you eat poultry you may well be aware of this village as it has one of the largest poultry farms in norfolk. IT s or was also home to Kerry foods IIRC
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andre smith
Saturday, February 11, 2012
i live on the north norfolk coast and i have HEARD of this village i lived not far from it for a few years we have to remember that people who were born there may now be living in "norwich" or maybe work in "norwich" and will still have an interest in the village. i just hope the "sub-committee will still involve the villagers when it comes to the planning stages :-)
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stephen watson
Saturday, February 11, 2012
note to self; must check out the 'chit chat' club sometime; sounds like enormous fun! NOT
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itsme73
Saturday, February 11, 2012
never EVER heard of this village, its near attleborough apparently. but £1m, is it going have a bus station attached to it ?! and is this news that people in norwich really give a monkeys about?
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itsme73
Saturday, February 11, 2012