Crawfordjohn Public Hall Association has been granted over £100,000 from a council fund.
Councillors at the executive committee meeting on March 2 approved the funding of £124,694 from the renewable energy fund to the association for a project to improve the hall.
The renewable energy fund is contributed to by wind farms across the area and granted to local communities to help with benefitting the area and funding projects.
The overall cost of the association’s project is £166,259 and the grant from the renewable energy fund is 75 per cent of the overall project cost, which will be funded from Middlemuir wind farm.
Since being granted the REF fund, the association has received the other 25 percent from Clyde Wind Farm who gave £20,782.39 and the SSE Clyde Extension fund who contributed £20,782.
Liz Steele, spokesman for Crawfordjohn Hall, said: “Funding from SLC’s Renewable Energy Fund plus Clyde windfarm and funding from SSE’s Clyde Extension has allowed the hall committee to take forward a project to install solar panels with battery storage in place of the turbine, plus two new boilers for the ground source heat pump.
“Crawfordjohn Hall built in 2000 is community owned and needs constant fundraising to pay the average £12k per year to keep the facility open.
"In the current climate of ever-increasing electricity costs, the project couldn’t come at a better time for the committee.”
She added: “It’s hoped the new system will produce up to 80 per cent of the energy required to keep the hall at a constant temperature fit for use by the yoga and sewing groups as examples.
"Four Tesla batteries will store any surplus energy made during the day for use in the evenings.
"The ‘free’ energy will allow the hall to be maintained at a warmer temperature, thus hopefully attracting more groups to use it.
“This is a very exciting project for the hall committee, residents of the village and people further afield who use the hall, as the money saved by use of renewable energy will help to secure the facility in the future.”
The grant will allow the association to replace an inefficient ground source heat pump at the hall as the main hall is too cold for use at the current moment.
The aim of the project is to install solar panels with storage batteries and a new efficient boiler that will allow the heating system to run at a higher capacity and encourage year round activities within the hall, in turn, reducing the hall running costs.
This will allow the group to develop opportunities and additional partnerships to enhance the leisure and social opportunities for the Crawfordjohn area.
Councillor Alex Allison said: “I very much welcome this, it’s a very well used, locally run and managed facility. Crawfordjohn is a very small village, but it actually serves a wider area and the hall can be utilised for a much wider use, so it is very welcome to keep the facilities in a good condition to benefit wider.”
Crawfordjohn hall is used by locals and voluntary organisations for leisure, recreation and social activities.
The Crawfordjohn Public Hall Association has 12 members on the management committee and 20 volunteers.
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