Purton's Millennium Community Hall has splendid disabled facilities the only problem being that the people for whom they were intended could not get there.

The pothole-filled car park was in such a bad state that people with physical handicaps could not negotiate their way to the hall's doors.

All that has changed, however, thanks to a lottery grant and funding from North Wiltshire District Council and from Biffaward, which distributes landfill tax credits.

Their donation paid for the full £14,565 cost of work to improve the surface of the car park.

The hall belongs to the Purton Village Centre Charity and the new-look car park was officially opened yesterday by the trustees' chairman David Sweet and vice-chairman Margaret Belt.

"The trust has been here for about 30 years and during that time buildings have been added. The Millennium Hall was the last," said the parish council's assistant clerk Teresa Hartshorn.

"Now everybody in the village can use it."