A NEW community building in Machynlleth will be able to go ahead thanks to a funding boost - while staff are celebrating scooping a volunteers’ award for their hard work in getting the project off the ground.

Cwmni Cymunedol Cletwr has received £172,083 from the Welsh Government’s Community Facilities Programme to help them build a new shop, cafe and community hub on the site of the former Cletwr service station in Tre’r-ddol.

The original building is currently being operated as a community shop, café and community meeting space, and staff and volunteers behind the project have been honoured at the 2016 Wales Council for Voluntary Action group volunteering awards.

The current building is well used as a Welsh language lending library and a meeting space for community groups but is in a “very poor” condition.

The new facility will have more space and be better able to host community activities, while plans are in the works to provide other services including a West Wales Credit Union access point, and wifi and computers available for community use.

Cwmni Cymunedol Cletwr has already bought the Cletwr site, with the help of a Big Lottery grant in 2015.

See this week’s south editions for the full story, in shops and online on Wednesday