Delighted villagers are celebrating after receiving nearly £200,000 of lottery money which will enable them start building a new eco-friendly village hall.

Delighted villagers are celebrating after receiving nearly £200,000 of lottery money which will enable them start building a new eco-friendly village hall.

A Big Lottery Fund grant of £177,000has secured the future of the new building and work will start in November on the £490,000 project to give the people of Neatishead, Irstead and Barton Turf a bigger, greener hall by next year.

Plans for the new hall started 10-years-ago with clubs, groups and societies growing out of the existing hall in Neatishead near Wroxham.

With the closure of a village pub and the post office last year it is hoped that a tourist booth within the hall will attract visitors to area boosting services in the village to help to keep it alive.

The grant, from a Big Lottery Fund pot of £3,422,746 for community buildings means that with £100,000 cash already in the bank and another £130,000 to £150,000 expected from the sale of the present hall, the £450,000 needed to start building has been achieved.

Another £40,000 is all that is needed to reach their target and complete the project.

A plot behind the old hall, donated by a local land owner five-years-ago, will be the site of the building.

It will feature a range of sustainable materials including straw bale walls, recycled newspaper insulation, rainwater toilets and a variety of green roofs.

The bigger premises will provide more space and capacity for the many activities that the present hall is used for now including WI meetings and gardening clubs to acting and yoga.

Ian McFadyen, chairman of the fundraising committee, said that he thought that the lottery had given the project the money because they were in a prime position for tourists and because of its eco credentials.

Villager Dolly Newcombe , who has been on the hall committee since it formed 10-years-ago, praised local fund-raising support through coffee mornings, quizzes, casino nights and legacies.

She hoped that now people knew that the hall was going ahead there would be a surge in donations to raise the last amount of money needed to hit the target.

She said: “It has been a struggle, but it's great.”