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A VILLAGE near Winchester has closed ranks to help build a new community centre.

The trust behind a £450,000 scheme to build a new facility in Easton has teamed up with the village's cricket club to progress the project.

If residents of the village approve the new alliance at a meeting on Monday (May 19) it will mean land owned by Easton and Martyr Worthy Cricket Club will be transferred to the Easton Challenge Team (ECT), the group behind the project.

The land is adjacent to the existing village hall in Chapel Lane, which will be knocked down to make way for the new facility.

Robert Hall, chairman of ECT, said the new relationship would make life a lot easier and that he hopes the new hall will be in place by early 2009. He added the Charity Commission had approved the new relationship between the cricket club and ECT.

He added: "We are very grateful to the club for offering us the land, because it makes life a lot easier. It means we can be more flexible in how we put the building up.

"The reality is it's very difficult for a small community to raise money and there's not a lot of big grants out there, not since the millennium. The lion's share of the fundraising we have had to do ourselves."

The existing wooden structure is beyond economic repair and Mr Hall fears it will become unfit for use before a new one is in place.

It is proposed the new facility will include a hall where shows can be put on, a meeting room, which would double up as a bar for the cricket team, changing rooms and internet access.

As part of the tie-up with the club the trust will take on the responsibility to provide cricket facilities for the village. Mr Hall said it was one of the last village cricket greens in the area and that everyone was keen to protect it.

It is hoped that during the cricket close season the land will be used for other sports, such as five-a-side football and archery.

Easton Challenge Team's annual general meeting will take place on Monday, May 19, at the village hall in Chapel Lane.

For more information visit www.easton-village.co.uk.

11:50am Tuesday 13th May 2008

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