A village hall close to the Powys border has been awarded nearly £6,000 in National Lottery Funding to provide resources for the local community.

Trustees of the Marton Village Hall are celebrating after receiving funding to support their aims of providing a welcoming place for people within the community to socialise.

The village hall committee believes that the well-being of residents will be enhanced by the extra equipment that will be available thanks to the grant, such as more get togethers and community events.

Local Shropshire councillor Heather Kidd said: "A National Lottery Community Fund is a really worthwhile award. Rural village halls are the life blood of many villages now and they are often the only place to meet as shops and pubs disappear.

County Times:

“Grants such as this for Marton Village Hall would take ages to raise; it will allow the village to show films independently and to support other groups. Well done.”

Marton Village Hall has been operating since 1926 and is managed by a committee. It was founded as a community asset and a new village hall was opened in 2012. The group has shown films since 2003 with a showing once a month from September through to May under the auspices of Arts Alive and Flicks in the Sticks.

By using its own equipment, the committee have stated that Marton Village Hall will be able to continue showing films but also have the facility to allow other organisations to promote their own charitable interests. At the same time, the Hall’s facilities will be used more often in the local community.

John Rice, Film Co-ordinator and volunteer at Marton Village Hall, added: “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our community in this way.”

The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK.

The National Lottery Community Fund recently launched a new strategy, which will underpin its efforts to distribute at least £4 billion of National Lottery funding by 2030.

As part of this, the funder has four key missions, which are to support communities to come together, be environmentally sustainable, help children and young people thrive and enable people to live healthier lives.