Building starts on the new Marshland St James district community and sports centre with a main hall, a community shop and café.

Cambs Times: The new centre will replace the current village hall and sports pavilion in Marshland St James.The new centre will replace the current village hall and sports pavilion in Marshland St James. (Image: Archant)

There will also be a second smaller hall for conferences, extra meeting room space for classes, training, and group meetings, and also improved sports changing facilities.

There will also be separate changing rooms for home and away teams, and match officials, modern showers and toilet facilities.

Building work is due to be finished by Christmas and the new hall will open in early 2018.

The £1m project has been made possible by substantial grants from both the Big Lottery Fund’s Reaching Communities programme and from Sport England, together with a number of smaller grants from charitable foundations and community fund raising.

Sue Askew, Chair of Marshland St James Parish Council, said: “This is fantastic news for our village. Marshland Hall will be a much-needed hub and central meeting point for our community”.

Lee Chapman, Chair of MDCSC, said: “We are absolutely delighted that building work is about to start and that our plans for Marshland Hall are being realized. We are very grateful to all our funders for their generous support and for recognizing that new and enhanced community facilities are urgently needed for Marshland St James and the surrounding rural area. And all credit must go to the local community and local businesses who have wholeheartedly supported this project since Day 1”. “Going forward, we need to sustain our fundraising efforts - and I urge anyone who hasn’t done so yet to donate to our Buy a Brick campaign – and we also urgently need more volunteers to help our small project team to plan Marshland Hall’s programmes and activities for next year and to prepare for the grand opening”.