PLANS for a community hall on the Cades Farm estate in Wellington have been given a £7,000 funding boost, writes Steve Sowden.

Members of Wellington Town Council agreed last week – via Zoom video conferencing technology – to make the money available for the project.

The first meeting of people interested in running the project took place on March 8 with the next meeting set for Monday (April 26).

The council’s town clerk, Dave Farrow, said: “Funding is required to enable the project to start and, among other things, begin to look for alternative sources of funding to support it.

“The Community Council for Somerset offer consultancy support for this work and have provided a quote of £6,919 for the first phase of work which will provide support to the group in carrying out a community consultation exercise, which is essential to determine the design of the hall and support future funding applications, and also to support the group in developing a business plan and provide support for fundraising.

“As the group has no funds as yet it is recommended that the town

council draw down £7,000 from its reserves to enable this work to start. The project will not be able to progress without this funding.”

Councillors were told that once the initial work was completed the group could then apply for an Awards for All grant from the National Lottery to support its preliminary bids just to get the design drawings done for planning applications and funding bids.