A COMMUNITY group have secured funding to purchase Wigtown’s old church hall.
The Wigtown and Bladnoch Community Initiative (WBCI) has been successful in securing funding for the purchase and first phase of improvement work to the hall on Lochancroft Lane, after it was put up for sale by the Church of Scotland in 2023.
Initial funding was secured from the Scottish Land Fund (SLF) earlier in the year and now the remainder, as well as funding for the first phase of improvement work, has been secured from South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE).
Congratulating the group on their milestone, Kirsten Logue, from SOSE, said: “SOSE is delighted to have supported Wigtown and Bladnoch Community Initiative with the purchase of the Church Hall.
“The Community Initiative now plan to make improvements to the hall to be more accessible to more people, which in turn will support the local community to become more vibrant, resilient, and enterprising.
“We look forward to seeing this project progress and the improved community hall continuing to provide a valuable asset for Wigtown.”
The WBCI wishes to carry out improvements to the building to make it sustainable and more efficient. This will include upgrading doors and windows and eventually improvements to insulation and heating, and the installation of solar panels. They hope such efficiencies will help to keep the cost of hire to an absolute minimum, making it accessible for many different community uses.
Giving more detail about their plans, a spokesperson for WBCI said: “We have been keen to ensure that existing users of the hall, including badminton, table tennis, the Church Guild and the toddlers, are able to continue hosting their groups and events there, and we encourage the development of the many ideas and suggestions put forward during the public survey and the open drop-in session we undertook in 2023.
“Now that the future of the building is secure, we can start to make these ideas and suggestions a reality and consider any new ideas that people may have. We invite the community to come forward with ideas about how they want it to be used and how it might support the growth of community activities and events in the longer term. This might include new sports equipment, better facilities, a broader variety of events, and a community garden to utilise the large outside space. “We want to hear from groups and individuals who might want to use the hall in the future, as well as existing users who know the space and have ideas for improvements.”
They can be emailed at [email protected].
