Impressive plans for new village hall in Ellingham submitted to Northumberland County Council

An application has been submitted to Northumberland County Council seeking permission to demolish the existing village hall in Ellingham and replace it with a new building, including a new access and parking area, plus solar panels on the roof.

A design and access statement explains that the current hall, which was originally a reading room around the time of the First World War, is much loved in the village and has had many functions.

But while ‘it is still regularly used, its size at 88m² imposes limitations on its use and the fabric of the building is in very poor condition. Its facilities (kitchen and toilets) are not up to current standards and the main entrance does not meet accessibility standards.’

The site is part of the Ellingham Estate, which has agreed to increase the area of the plot and the length of the lease ‘in order to facilitate the construction of a larger and better quality building fit for the the 21st century’.

The additional land will allow for parking spaces for 20 cars, including two disabled bay, with a new access to be created as well.

The design statement says that the new facility has been designed in response to the brief from the village hall management committee, which wanted a hall ‘which will be cost-effective in build cost and running costs while being suitable for a wide variety of uses’.

The single-storey building would feature a 14-metre by seven-and-a-half-metre main hall with two store rooms, a covered entrance, a central lobby, a meeting room (also suitable as a bar serving the main hall), a kitchen with serving hatch into the hall, and toilets, including a separate accessible toilet.

The new building has been positioned to the rear of the existing hall which would allow its use to continue throughout the construction period.

The document concludes that the new hall would ‘improve the provision of village facilities and the sustainability of Ellingham as a community’.