Breckland Council has approved a renewed planning application for the redevelopment of the village hall in Lyng.

The application, which details the demolition of the existing building and the construction of a new modern community hall, is the second to be approved after the first expired due to a lengthy development process.

Andrew Blencowe, chairman of the village hall project and trustee of Lyng and District Community Hall, said that he feels confident that work will begin in January.

'The initial application fell at wrong moment when we didn't have a grant through from the lottery. Until we received that we weren't sure which way we were going with the project,' he said.

'Permission was originally obtained too early but the time spent waiting for the renewed permission has been valuably employed and it has allowed us to do many of the bits we needed to do before the work could begin. It gave us breathing space to get it right and we are now ready.'

Plans to redevelop the village hall have been worked on since 2006 and over the past 11 years the team has raised thousands of pounds through their buy a brick campaign, which asks local residents and businesses to make donations.

They also received a major boost when they were successful in their application for a grant from the National Lottery Fund.

'The buy a brick campaign was one of many contributory factors,' Mr Blencowe said. 'So far it has raised over £3,000 but talk of redevelopment began in 2006 and over the years the money raised in the community has reached a total of around £40,000.

'Our intention with this project is to try and re-instil community spirit into our rural village. There is often no sense of community, with elderly people left isolated and lonely and younger people who don't know the people living in their community.

'As a whole the community doesn't really exist and we want to get to a stage where everyone comes together and works as a community.'

Mr Blencowe added that if everything goes to plan then the work will commence sometime in January 2018 and will be completed before the end of the year.

For more information on the project or to donate to the buy a brick campaign visit the Lyng Village Hall website.