News & Information
Our very grateful thanks to everyone in Helpston, Etton and our surrounding villages who supported the Village Hall through the Silent Auction at Helpstonbury this Summer. The auction raised a staggering £6,500 which will contribute towards the build of the new Hall. If you were a successful bidder for an auction item, we hope you enjoy your purchase, we have had some lovely feedback from residents including Jo Stott and her husband who recently had a fantastic time at Mel Elliot’s holiday home in West Mersea…. we very much enjoyed seeing your pictures thank you Jo, it looked amazing.
Congratulations go to Claire Spooner, Emma Scarborough & their team, for holding a very successful Macmillan coffee morning at the Hall on Saturday 21st September which raised over £1,000 for this very worthwhile cause, the cakes looked amazing .
Annual Maintenance
The Hall has recently had it’s required annual asbestos check and is approved as compliant for another year…. always good to see that completed.
New Hall Progress
Progress continues to be slow, not helped by recent news that the next stage in the development of the Peterborough Local Plan (which approves or denies available land to be built upon in the villages) has been pushed back to February 2025 (this was due to be in October) because of changes in the national housing policy.
However, we continue to progress the potential option to purchase of land on Heath Rd in Helpston and remain hopeful that it will become a reality (subject to planning approval at the appropriate time).
One other offer of land which we had been in discussions with a landowner about has since unfortunately been withdrawn.
There was a positive meeting with our current landlords Milton Estate during the Summer which has served to allay some of our concerns. They are very much supportive of our quest for a new Hall, and also concur that the current Hall is no longer fit for purpose for our growing, thriving village communities.
The Village Hall Committee are keen to continue to progress consultation with the community and so are preparing to hold consultation events in January, which will take place over the course of a weekend and on one weekday night – watch out here for further news and information about the event and the confirmed dates. We do hope you will join us to hear more about the plans for the future and to give you an opportunity to share your ideas and have input. We do hope to see lots of people during the course of the event.
Diary Dates
The Art 4 Ukraine event will once again be held in the Village Hall on 16th & 17th November, this will be the third year that this event has been held, raising funds for Ukraine and profiling our fantastically talented local Artists too.
