A new community hall, which is set to cost more than £1million, has been given the go-ahead at a prominent Suffolk sports ground.

The facility, which will be able to accommodate 80 to 100 people, will be built next to an existing sports pavilion at the Ogilvie Pavilion and Sports Ground in Thorpeness.

Eric Atkinson, chair of trustees at the Ogilvie Pavilion and Sports Ground charity, which operates the Thorpe Road site, said the existing pavilion was quite small and poorly insulated, but the new hall will offer more modern catering facilities and a kitchen.

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Public consultations had been carried out to determine the sort of provision that residents would like to see in the village and Mr Atkinson said the plans approved by East Suffolk Council matched their vision.

More than £500,000 funding for the new hall will come from the sale of Ogilvie Hall, sited some 600 to 700 metres away from the sports ground.

Mr Atkinson said the Ogilvie Trust, which owns the hall, wanted to use the money from the sale of the hall to do something else in the village and the ambition was to build a community hall.

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He added the existing pavilion would be retained as a sports facility with the new building being constructed alongside it and providing a space for the community to use.

Mr Atkinson believed there had been a pavilion at the site since the 1930s or 1940s with Thorpeness having originally been developed as a holiday village after previously existing as a fishing hamlet as part of the Ogilvie estate.

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He said: "We are really pleased the plans have been approved. It is the culmination of a long period of time taken to get to this stage.

"There was transferring the money, then the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues, so it has taken quite a while, but we are delighted to have got to this stage and the building they said they wanted in the consultation is the one that has been approved."

He said it would take at least two years until the new hall was ready for use.

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