AMBITIOUS plans to redevelop Sandford-on-Thames Village Hall have taken a step forward.

Organisers are hoping to spend £500,000 extending and improving the hall, to provide additional meeting rooms, a community café and shop.

Planning permission for the scheme was granted in February, and the hall development committee has now secured its first major grant of £100,000 from South Oxfordshire District Council.

Abi Johnson, who sits on the hall management and development committees, said: “Over the years Sandford has lost its school, its post office and its local shop.

“All the traditional focuses of the community have gradually dropped away and what happens is the community itself breaks into disparate bits because there is nowhere for people to meet.”

In response to this, the Talking Shop group was founded by Ms Johnson and others, holding a weekly market in the village hall, with the plan being to develop the hall into a real community hub.

Through the market, £15,000 has been raised for the hall redevelopment, and a further £5,000 from fundraising events.

Stephen Paine, chairman of Sandford-on-Thames Parish Council, said: “The village hall development is a major part of the longer term planning for three years. The village hall will be the community hub, a multi-purpose facility for all ages.

“This year great strides have been made and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the plans and the funding will enable us to turn the first sod in the coming months.”

The plan is to convert the large, empty roof space into two rooms, and to provide an additional meeting room downstairs.

There will be new toilet facilities and an updated kitchen, while two extensions will be built, one for storage and one for Talking Shop’s community hub, with a café, shop and kitchen available for hire.

The South Oxfordshire District Council grant is the first major funding, while money is sought from organisations like Wren, which distributes landfill tax credit money to good causes.