Public meetings were held on Littlemoor on 2nd and 3rd of April to consider the future of the existing Littlemoor Community Hall if it became possible to build a new community centre between St Francis Church and Littlemoor Library.

The first meeting was held in St Francis of Assisi Church, while the second was in the Littlemoor Community Hall off Canberra Road.

Littlemoor Community Action Group chairman, Malcolm Beeson, explained to the meetings why the public was being consulted at this time.

Progress was being made with the funding of the proposed new building, which is currently costed at £1.7 million.

Over half of the money needed was accounted for and grant applications had just been submitted to four different charities for the remaining amount.

Most of the money already promised would come from Weymouth & Portland Borough Council and Dorset County Council, but the funds from the borough council could not come directly from the cash-strapped authority.

It could only find the money if it could sell-on the site of the existing hall for the building of social housing.

The borough council had therefore asked the Littlemoor Community Action Group to get public agreement that the site of the present Littlemoor Community Hall would be vacated once the new building was in use.

Mr Beeson reminded his audience that the present hall had been created by local people giving six (old) pence a week into a building fund.

The hall was finally opened in 1965 at a cost of £6,000, of which £500 was donated by the church.

He said that a number of local residents felt very sentimental about those difficult beginnings and were reluctant to give up the building.

However, he pointed out that the hall was now trying to provide for ten times as many local people as there were in the valley in the 1960’s.

Some people also needed a lot of support in these difficult economic times.

The new building would have space not only for social activities but also for support groups like the Dorset Blind Association, The Alzheimer’s Association, Relate, a Citizens’ Advice Bureau, and hopefully also a Job Club, a benefits payments office, training courses and so on.

Because the new building would be four times the size of the old, several activities could go on at once.

The planned café and computer suite would also encourage more mixing between the different sections of the local community, to everyone’s benefit.

He stressed that he could not yet promise that all the funding could be secured, but said that we were as close as we would ever be to getting a new building.

Skanska were prepared to help, but would not be around for ever.

There were also some grants available at the moment that might fund the project.

Members of the audience were invited to speak for or against the proposal, then a secret ballot was taken as the audience left.

This was supervised by a member of the local police team and the vicar, Reverend Lorraine Dobbins at the Thursday meeting.

At the Friday meeting the vote was monitored by County Councillor Mike Byatt, prospective Labour candidate for the Littlemoor and Broadway area in the June elections.

The result of the voting was declared as being 40 votes in favour of vacating the existing building when a new one was in use, with 2 votes cast against the proposal. Malcolm Beeson says “This gives the Littlemoor Community Action Group a clear mandate to continue with negotiations with Weymouth & Portland Borough Council to secure the best possible ‘trade-in’ value for the present hall.

If we can secure the grants that we have applied for, we could see something happening on the site in a year’s time, with completion in 2011.”