CAMPAIGNERS behind ambitious plans to replace an upper dale village hall with brand new facilities have been handed a £436,000 boost.
Middleton-in-Teesdale Village Hall is one of 85 projects across the UK that has received money in the latest round of government funding to help secure community assets.
The existing hall closed five years ago due to safety issues and permission to demolish it was approved by Durham County Council last month.
Now, members of the Upper Teesdale Community Association (UTCA), who have been working on plans to secure cash to replace the hall with a more modern structure to suit the needs of residents and complement other venues in the village, have been allocated £436,200 from the government’s community ownership fund (COF) for the rebuild.
The money will be added to £200,000 already secured towards the cost of the project from Durham County Council.
Association member Grace Crawford said: “It is really exciting. We couldn’t believe it when the email came through confirming we’d got the funding.
“We put the application in to the fund in the spring and then the election came along so everything had to go on hold.
“What we need to do is recheck all the prices to make sure we have got enough money to complete the build because it has been some time since we got the quotes. Hopefully it will be enough but prices have risen.”
She added: “The longer it went on the group were thinking it was not going to come off and we were writing it off, but we couldn’t believe it when the email came through before Christmas.”
“It will take a while to get everything in place for the demolition because of the asbestos and we are hoping to start during half term time to coincide with the school being closed.
“Everybody on UTCA is a volunteer and has been working so hard for so long because we want to ensure our community continues to be a great place to live, work and play.”
The 85 applicants whose bids were successful mean £36m is being spent on community facilities, in addition to 409 projects worth £135m which have previously benefitted from the scheme.
The COF was created by the former Conservative government as part of its levelling up policy and is being carried on under Labour.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The government is committed to kickstarting economic growth and raising living standards.
“Thriving communities lie at the heart of a thriving economy, and the support provided by the COF will inject funding where it is most needed, making change happen and bringing people together in the process.
“The projects will support the government on its path to national renewal, helping realise our regions’ huge potential while creating safer and happier streets by restoring community pride.”
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
