LLANBEDR Village Hall supporters are celebrating a huge Christmas cash injection worth nearly £250,000.

Canolfan Gymdeithasol Llanbedr, the charity which runs Llanbedr Village Hall and the adjacent playing fields, is delighted that it has been awarded £249,0000 by the Big Lottery fund towards the cost of refurbishing and extending the hall.

The rollercoaster campaign to secure­ funding started over 10 years ago and local volunteers are delighted their hard work has finally paid off.

A spokesperson for the charitable group said: “The Canolfan Gymdeithasol Llanbedr charity is very grateful to the people and organisations who have helped with all this work.

“Special thanks must go to Gwyndaf Williams of Tyddyn Sian, Llanbedr who has done hundreds of hours work for the two applications to the lottery and other supporting work.

“Thanks must also go to Griff Price, the Llanbedr architect who has done the design work for the hall refurbishment and extension free of charge, and to Iolyn Jones and Goronwy Davies who have worked hard to progress this project to date.”

The Canolfan Gymdeithasol Llanbedr charity has also managed to source a further £100,000 from various other organisations, including Snowdonia National Park’s CAE sustainable development fund and Gwynedd Council.

There are plans to hold a meeting to finalise details about how the renovated hall can be utilised.

“Local people and current hall users­ are invited to come along to the charity’s annual general meeting in the village hall on Tuesday, 5 January, at 8pm to find out more about the project, and how we are going to proceed – offers of help from any source will be gratefully received,” the spokesperson added.

“It would be good as well to start looking forward and thinking about how the community can make the fullest use of the new and improved village hall facilities that will be available when the project is completed.

“Simultaneous translation will be provided at the AGM so everyone can use their language of choice and fully follow everything that is said.”

Work on the building is expected to start early next year and the grand opening should take place during the autumn of 2016.

Rona Aldrich, Wales’ committee member for the Big Lottery Fund, was delighted with the proposed project.

“Programmes like this are making a difference to the lives of so many people in communities across Wales.

“It delivers on our promise to use National Lottery funding to regenerate and revitalise communities, tackle disadvantage head on and leave a lasting legacy.”