The champagne is flowing early this festive season for residents of Myland in Colchester, Essex, after learning the Myland Parish Halls are to receive a facelift in the New Year using £385,000 from the Big Lottery Fund.

The money will be used to modernise and extend the building to create a multi-function hall and ancillary rooms to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding community.

Huw Edwards, Chair of the Myland Parish Halls Modernisation Project, said: “We are extremely pleased and very excited about this award from the Big Lottery Fund. All through the application process, we truly believed that ours was a project which would provide real tangible benefits for the people of Myland, Colchester. We are hugely encouraged to know we have external validation of this. This project will not only benefit the many local voluntary organisations which meet at the halls but also the wider neighbourhood by providing a place where people can get together and meet. Modernising the halls provides a once in a generation opportunity for our community to improve their community facilities and is the result of many years hard work by many residents.”

Myland Parish Halls were built in 1871 and were originally used as school buildings. For the past 50 years they have played a key role in providing educational and leisure activities for the local community. The much needed improvements will result in a venue for residents of all ages to engage in a wide range of recreational, educational and social activities including playgroup, parent and toddlers, English conversation group, children’s and youth groups, drama groups and private hire.

The money comes from the Fund’s Community Buildings programme and is just a slice of the 35 awards worth almost £10million going towards bricks and mortar investments in village halls and community centres across England today.

Jonathan Clark, Big Lottery Fund Head of the East of England region said: “The Community Buildings programme is about creating a focus for communities and meeting the needs of a wide variety of people within the local area. This expansion work will really make Myland Parish Halls more accessible to everyone in the community and encourage wide participation in village life. We’re delighted to be able to support this project.”

Further Information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone:  0845 6021 659

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to Editors

• Community Buildings is dedicated to investing in buildings that give communities a chance to improve their quality of life and meet local needs, by offering a range of activities and services open to a broad range of people.
• £50 million will be distributed across England over three years with grants of £50,000 to £500,000 available.
• The programme opened for applications in June 2006. 200 applicants were invited to submit stage 2 applications and development funding was awarded to some projects.
• The programme is now closed for applications.  
• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £22 billion has now been raised and more than 300,500 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.