Diss Youth Resource Base on Shelfanger Road, Diss.

A Norfolk youth centre will be able to carry out interior improvements after receiving £4,000 grant funding from a council.

The steering group of the Diss Youth and Community base in Shelfanger Road, Diss has been given the cash by South Norfolk Council to carry out the work to the centre’s main hall, which includes removing single framed metal windows which are not energy efficient and replacing them with double glazed windows which will help to keep heat in and reduce heating bills.

Once this phase has been completed the centre’s trustees then hope to install a dropped ceiling before removing old linoleum tiles from the centre’s floor and replace them with hardwood laminate flooring.

Keith Kiddie, a member of the centre’s steering group, said the idea of the lowered ceiling was to enable better insulation to be installed in the gap between the ceiling and roof.

He added: “Hopefully, by replacing the single frame windows with double glazed windows it will help reduce the centre’s heating bills as we have to charge enough to actually run the place.”

He said the centre had been doing well since an anonymous donor stepped in to buy the centre when it was being sold by the county council as part of cutbacks to reduce the national debt.

As well as a regular youth club, the centre also plays host to the South Norfolk youth band and stages events and activities including collectors fayres, art group meetings and dance events and judo classes.

Once the windows, floor and ceiling have been sorted any remaining money could be spent on improving the acoustics within the main hall.