£7000 grant gives village hall fresh footing

A Darlington village hall has been given a fresh footing after securing a £7000 grant from a North East renewable energy developer.

Sadberge Village Hall has used funding from the community fund linked to Sunderland-headquartered OnPath Energy’s Moor House Wind Farm to replace the ageing floor across its 124sq metre events space.

The 30-year-old concrete surface had begun showing signs of wear, with cracks requiring regular repairs.

A new hard-wearing, low-maintenance vinyl floor has now been installed by local contractor Steve Hall, with organisers hoping the upgrade will encourage more bookings.

The hall hosts activities ranging from Pilates, dance and keep-fit classes to badminton, arts and crafts and Post Office outreach visits, attracting around 1000 visitors each month.

The latest award follows previous support from the Moor House fund, including £3843 for 150 padded chairs and £6600 towards LED lighting.

A further £3000 helped refurbish the venue’s popular coffee lounge.

The hall, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year, has already welcomed its first wedding reception on the new flooring.

Village Hall Association secretary Ray Murphy said: “The hall is very much the focal point for village life and is always well used, but the issues we’ve been having with the floor have become more of a pressing issue for lots of our groups.

“Our keep fit and dance class members have found it increasingly uncomfortable to use, while the cracks have impacted on the quality of the overall environment that we can offer.

“Replacing it would have been a significant challenge to the finances for a small community organisation like ours and would have required a great deal of fundraising work, so we’re very grateful to OnPath Energy for stepping up to help us once again.

“The new floor has made such a difference to the feeling in the room, with everyone that’s been in there saying how much more comfortable it is to be in there, and we hoping that this word of mouth will encourage even more local people and groups to make use of what we have to offer.

“The Moor House Wind Farm fund has been instrumental in a number of important projects in and around the village over the last few years, as well as within the village hall itself, and the positive impact that they’ve made through our building will be felt for many years to come.”

Other beneficiaries of the wind farm fund include Age UK North Yorkshire & Darlington and food redistribution charity The Bread and Butter Thing.

Tom Chaplin, partnership and community manager at OnPath Energy, added: “The hall is at the heart of community life in Sadberge, and its trustees do everything they can to deliver the best possible facilities for local residents and visitors.

“The turbines of the Moor House Wind Farm that can be seen from the village hall are directly responsible for generating revenues that have supported lots of different local projects and has created considerable community value that will last for decades.”

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