Residents polled on plans for new Great Ellingham village hall

Residents had the opportunity to vote on a village's new �1m hall at a public meeting.

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.

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.