Upgrade delights Inglewood board

The Inglewood Town Hall has been restored to its former splendour, with an interior upgrade now all but finished.

While workmen applied the finishing touches yesterday, the Inglewood Community Board held its final meeting of the year in the hall to celebrate the completion of the $155,700 project.

Restoration work included lowering the ceiling above the stage to improve heating, polishing the dance floor, interior painting, new foyer and staircase carpet, and a complete refurbishment of the gallery seating.

After the meeting, board chairwoman Jean Pierce was glowing in her praise of the final result.

"To think a few years ago the old borough council were considering pulling it down," she said.

"It's looking really good, I'm chuffed with it, I really am.

"Now I want to encourage people to use it because it's a grand old place."

Mrs Pierce said the board would have liked to upgrade the outside of the hall as well but didn't have the money available. This could be a project for the future.

She was hoping to hold an official opening and open day on December 3 to let people have a look around the hall.

Taranaki Electricity Trust representatives would be invited and thanked for contributing the money to make the upgrade possible.

Fittingly, one item on the board's agenda yesterday was a submission to the New Plymouth District Council's community hall review.

An initial discussion document has been released proposing to sell five rural halls and introduce new targets for hall usage, giving funding priority to halls meeting their targets.

The Inglewood board's submission supports the recommendations in principle but expressed concern about the usage targets and funding, believing the targets might be too high.

Urban halls such as Inglewood's would have a target of 100 hours use a month.

Proposed targets for rural halls are 40 hours a month.

Submissions to the hall review close on December 17.