When we first had the figure of £626,000 given to us by our quantity surveyer it seemed like an unobtainable dream. However, with perseverance and hope, we have come from 2014 to 2022 : from no funds to £450,000. The design was first devised by Ed Green of the Pentan partnership and it has now been revised and taken over by Nick Renwick a fine architect from Cowbridge.
Link to our New Community Hall Facebook page
We were told early on that this wasn’t going to be easy, but looking at the dilapidated state of our current hall we just knew that our area needed better than this for the community. We are in an area which doesn’t obviously have a “centre” and we can see that with our new hall we will be- come that centre, drawing people to us from all ages and all walks of life.
Our new hall is going to be a beacon of hope for the lonely, the disabled, the young and the old. The local young people have no dedicated youth centre and we can see that our community hall will be a place of fun and refuge for them to meet. We see that there will be games opportuni- ties for indoor sport and also similarly for the elderly, such as indoor bowls.
Covid has made a big impression on us all to realise the deficiencies in our society. We have already become a dementia friendly church and want to expand that into our new hall, with friendship events. We have also realised that those with disabilities are marginalised, so we have planned a hall with full disabled access and we also will have a hearing loop throughout the build- ing for those with hearing problems.
We have inherently been the hall of choice for children’s parties and we hope that our new facilities will further enable children and adults to come together at their times of celebration.
We will offer friendship and love to all, and a sense of family through the facilities in our new hall, including a coffee bar and cinema club, Keep fit, Pilates, dance classes, such as Zumba. Community choirs keep asking for use of our facilities too. Our local counsellors and po- lice already use the old building and are looking forward to using the new one for surgeries and local get together community events.
FINANCE IS NOW ALMOST THERE
We are thrilled that the land at the edge of the car park has now been sold, and contracts exchanged and this has produced a huge sum for our project.
Phase one of our Community Hall Project has been completed and now we move on to phase 2, which is gathering together the remains of the required funding, and putting the project out to tender.
Some members of the congregation have already contributed generously to the fund and several charities have shown faith in our project by providing us with substantial grants, but we are still short of our financial target.
Taking into account the fees to be paid from our current funds we now have a round sum £450,000 in the kitty. We still have a shortfall and we are already seeking more grant funding from some of the generous groups willing to support us.
If you have not already done so, we would urge you to consider making a contribution, however small, as soon as possible to help us get over the line.
It would be a shame if we cannot muster the funds to replace our present hall. Having come so far, we don’t want to fall at the final hurdle. Please send your gifts to our treasurer John Hodgson, 173 Cyncoed Rd, Cardiff DF23 6AH or use the QR code shown here.
THANK YOU, AS WE BUILD A COMMUNITY HALL FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
– Linda Alexander, Chair, New Hall Committee
