Combined village hall gets majority approval (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Combined village hall gets majority approval

Families in Seagry and Startley are to get a new £360,000 village hall despite opposition from some local people.

The hall will be built on an acre of land between the two villages on the Startley Road. The land was bought from the district council, opposite the existing 83-year-old village hall.

Councillors voted to allow the building to go ahead at a district council planning meeting last Wednesday night. But they set a proviso for planning officers to sort out details for providing pedestrian access to the hall.

It is hoped the building will be completed within four years.

About 30 people from the two villages turned up at the committee meeting to hear the debate.

Afterwards, Derek Kemp, deputy chairman of the Village Hall Management Trustees, said the majority of local people supported their planning application. He said: "We had to suppress a quiet cheer when we got approval. Hopefully it is all systems go."

Mr Kemp said Seagry and Startley are too small to have separate village halls, but a new building would serve both communities well.

He said: "The old hall is creaky, the roof is leaking and it has been patched up by many people."

Mr Kemp also said the new hall would have a bigger kitchen and there would be 24 extra car-parking spaces compared with the eight at the existing hall.

He said he felt local wildlife would benefit from the planning decision because volunteers have already started clearing up a silted up pond on the hall site.

While only one person spoke out against the new village hall siting at the meeting, the district council has received ten letters objecting to the initiative. These raised concerns about development of a green field site and worries that it would encourage more car usage.

At the meeting Richard Bridge, from Seagry, and managing director of Sherston-based Wentworth Jigsaws, said it would be better to locate the new hall at the recreation ground next to Seagry School because this was a central location with access to drainage and electricity .

He said the trustees had opposed this idea because they did not want a new hall close to their houses. And he dismissed their idea of raising £360,000 by applying for grants as unrealistic.

After the meeting Vanessa Buchan, who lives on the Seagry-Startley road, said a local resident called Kay Mosley, had originally donated the recreation ground in the 1960s to include a village hall for people in Seagry and Startley. And she warned that the new building would be sited on the inside of a very tight bend in a 60mph speed zone.

Mrs Buchan said: "It's a rat-run for the M4. If they had the hall at the school site, there would be so many grants they would get and personal donations."

After the meeting, in response to the objections, Mr Kemp said Mrs Mosley had never specified using the recreation ground for a village hall.

He dismissed the idea that the trustees did not want the hall on the recreation ground for personal reasons. He added that the public had agreed to the new venue at a public meeting about four years ago.

Mr Kemp said: "If it takes ten years we will build the hall."

During the meeting district councillor Jane Scott said: " I think this is a wonderful opportunity for people to have the village hall they deserve. We do not want the hall to be held up."