£5,000 grant helps to give Cowbit village hall a warm glow

A village hall has been given a warm glow after being given a £5,000 grant for state-of-the-art heating.

Users of Cowbit Village Hall will feel the benefit after the full cost of installing a new heating system was met by the cash from the Biffa Awards scheme.
Biffa, the well-known waste transport and processing company, set up their award scheme to benefit cultural facilities and enhance communities and “transform lives” within set distances of Biffa’s waste sites.
The hall qualified due to being just within the qualifying distance from Biffa’s landfill site in the former quarry at Eye.
The application was processed by Village Hall Committee chairman Darren Harper and treasurer Chris Elliot.
The process involved carrying out an audit of the existing system’s efficiency, preparing an online application and then two competing quotes.
The work was carried out by local company, Complete Heat, of Whaplode Drove.
Mr Harper said: “The new heating is the latest in a series of improvements we have made to the hall in the past year, and we are extremely grateful to Biffa for fully funding the new heating.
“There are also other upgrades in the pipeline including new lighting.
“Cowbit Village Hall has been a popular and well-used facility within our community since 1988, and the whole committee is keen that it remains fit for purpose for the next quarter-century and beyond”.
The system that has been replaced was the original one from 1988 and obtaining parts and servicing support was becoming difficult.
It was also outdated in terms of heat output and energy usage.
The new system, besides being better at providing heat, is also more controllable and energy-efficient, meaning hall running costs will be reduced.