Improvements at Cottingley Hall Community Centre

Cottingley Hall Community Centre is to get improvements to its building.

In the last 12 months there has been some new blood appointed to the Trustees, the group that manage Cottingley Hall Community Centre. The exciting news is that they are looking at better ways in which to utilise the premises and how they might be able to encourage more community groups to use the facilities.

“This will make the building friendly and less daunting to a stranger.” said one local resident.

The Trustees were very excited about the plans presented to them by the architect, Russell Trudgen of Arctic Associates. It is proposed that an entrance be made in the centre of the gable end allowing access from the public footpath.

The new entrance will include a new storage area, a unisex toilet, toilet facilities for wheelchair users and baby changing. This will mean that anyone using the hall will no longer have to walk all the way through the building to find the toilets and strangers will no longer have to go through three sets of doors to find the hall.

At present, to access the building you have to go through two sets of doors to get into the main foyer and then turn right down a dark corridor and through another set of doors. This is also the way to the kitchen, which means that if two groups are using the centre one has to disturb the other to make drinks.

The foyer and main entrance are to have a facelift as well. The ladies toilets will be replaced with a tea bar, so that anyone using the Sanctuary/Worship area will no longer have to disturb others using the hall in order to make refreshments. The entrance area will be more welcoming and a place where small groups will be able to meet. The glass paneled wall divider, which was originally the outside wall before the extension was built, will have two less panels and thus let more light into the area.

The gentlemen’s toilet will be redesigned into a unisex, with wheelchair friendly toilets. The alterations to the toilets will result in losing the children’s toilets.

So that the church can continue to worship in the building while all this goes on it will be done in two phases with the new entrance the priority.

Want to know more? Watch this space!

This article was written by Diane McHale-Fannon using our Community Reporters website