MEMBERS of a village group are hoping for an influx of some young blood to help them save their community hall.

Secretary and treasurer of Gilwern Welfare Association, Brian Moss says the committee would love for local youngsters to join and help make the hall the centre of social activity again.

He says all eight members of the current committee are aged over 70 and they fear all their years of hard work raising money to keep the hall going, may be thrown away.

The association was formed in 1937 with the aim of building a village hall where people of the Gilwern ward, the parish of Llanelly in the county of Brecon would meet for the purpose of physical and mental recreation and social, moral and intellectual development.

House to house collections for funding the hall started and despite being interrupted by the Second World War, sufficient money had been collected by 1946 to purchase land on which the hall now stands.

Collections continued and the hall was built and opened by D Lloyd Jones Esq, High Sheriff of Brecknockshire on September 24 1955.

Throughout the years the hall has been managed by a volunteer committee who meet once a month for around an hour.

The duties of the committee is to maintain a healthy bank balance in accordance with charity commission rules and to ensure the structure of the building is updated to comply with legal regulations.

In the past 12 years, almost £85,000 has been spent on improving the building and its facilities.

Gilwern Village Hall is now one of the best halls in Monmouthshire and is available at very reasonable rates.

This is an ideal opportunity for young people to join us and help make the hall the centre of social activities again, he said.

Mr Moss added, We have eight members in our committee. I am the youngest and Im 73.

There comes a time when rather than going to a committee meeting I would like to stay at home and watch tv.

I got a committee together and we applied for grants. Anyone is welcome but it would be ideal if young people, aged around 18 or 19 could come to the committee and have experience on how to run things. They could then say to use what they think we should do, such as a disco or certain event. Eventually they could take over from people like me.

The hall is used by the community for events such as Gilwern WI, the Senior Citizens leaving party, entertainment and tea, every Wednesday there is a whist drive and every couple of months there is a toy fair. Theres also a coach tour organised every month to cities and places around the UK. The hall is available to hire for anyone in the community to use.

The committee work hard and raise funds to keep the hall open. Monmouthshire County Council rented two rooms and the village library was run from there for 50 years, which provided substantial financial help until it was removed last spring.

Mr Moss added, The present committee are all over 70 years of age and some are not in the best of health. Our aim is to try and recruit some new members, especially the younger element of Gilwern, in order that the hall may continue to provide a service to the village.

Mr Moss says a failure to gain new members may lead to the closure of the hall.

For further information contact 01495 310787 or go to the next meeting on August 19 at 7.30pm.