Village hall awarded £2,500 for refurbishment project

Buckland Dinham Village Hall is celebrating after being awarded a grant of £2,500 to fund its “village hall facelift”, as part of rural energy provider Calor’s annual funding scheme. 

The aim of the Calor Rural Community Fund is to give off-grid communities the chance to gain grants for projects that will improve local life. With a total fund of £50,000, this year the scheme offered funding for 21 different projects, with prize pots ranging from £1,000 up to £5,000. 

Buckland Dinham Village Hall is a vital amenity for local residents and is used daily by many village groups, as well as the wider community. The Calor grant will be used to continue the refurbishment of the building started earlier this year. 

Specifically, the grant will be used to have the kitchen repainted along with three small meeting rooms; to replace main hall curtains to complement the new neutral paintwork; to purchase 80 new chairs as the current chairs are very old and badly stained; and finally, to replace an old and unreliable LPG cooker. 

Linda Preece, secretary to the Buckland Dinham Village Hall management committee said, “Having the whole premises redecorated with new curtains and chairs will make the hall a much nicer place for all to visit and use, and a new gas cooker will make cooking the monthly lunch for up to 40 villagers much easier. The upstairs rooms have not been redecorated for some years, the largest one at least 25 years ago!

“Calor’s generosity means that we can give a new lease of life to our village hall. Most of local residents use the hall at some time or another and all are keen to see this lovely old building and its grounds kept well maintained and cared for.” 

Paul Blacklock, Calor’s corporate affairs manager added, “As a rural energy provider, we understand that country living can be challenging and access to community facilities can be especially difficult. 

“We set up the Calor Rural Community Fund to be able to give something back to these rural communities, and this year we were inundated by a number of deserving projects. We’re delighted to award Buckland Dinham Village Hall with £2,500 to help this community project and we look forward to seeing the transformation of the hall. 

“This year’s scheme was so successful we plan to relaunch it again in 2019, so keep an eye out on our website and social media channels for updates as we hope to be funding more fantastic projects near you!” 

For further information, please visit www.calor. co.uk/communityfund.