A village hall has been awarded £400,000 in lottery for funding for its refurbishment.

The grant represents 60 per cent of the total amount required to modernise and upgrade Ridgewell Village Hall, which still has an asbestos roof.

Following a consultation with residents through surveys and meetings in 2010, it was decided to build another room to provide letting opportunities and change the heating system from oil to a heat pump.

Project director Nick Rouse said: “We have always said our project is ambitious, but achievable and this generous grant from the Big Lottery is confirmation of the hard work which has been done by the team to get us this far.

“We will now be working harder still to get the balance of funding required to get this project through to development.

“The original hall was built by villagers themselves in the 1950s and they gave us a building which has served us well over the last 60 years. It is now up to us to provide a sustainable building to leave a similar legacy for the village for the next 60 years.”