A new kitchen at Newton Poppleford Pavilion could pave the way for weddings and a wide range of community events, according to one of its stalwarts.

Sidmouth Herald: Newton Poppleford PavilionNewton Poppleford Pavilion (Image: Archant)

The parish council successfully applied for planning permission for the new cooking facilities and a store room that will free up space to run bookings side-by-side. Councillor David Zirker said the challenge now will be funding the development, but trustees are reaching the halfway point in their £40,000 appeal.

He added: “I think it’s a well worthwhile project. There’s nowhere else in the village with a commercial kitchen, except perhaps the school.

“A new kitchen will it make much better for weddings because you can do a decent job of catering.

“It will make life easier for me and Rosemary for the monthly lunch club because we’ll be able to do the cooking down there.

“There are also a lot of societies that have their annual fundraisers there and we have community events at least once a year. Everything can be done on site.

“The pavilion could be a real big event place and you can make a lot of money on food.”

The new store will free up space in the former skittle alley, which is currently full of tables, chairs and sports equipment. David said it could be split up with partitions so several events can be run side-by-side, each with access to the kitchen.

He said the difficulty was the village has two competing venues, the pavilion and the village hall, that fulfil similar functions and so funding between them is split. There is also the smaller Harpford Hall nearby.

“We need about £20,000 – I make that about £10 per head of population in the village,” added David.

“Hopefully we can get 200 people to put in £80 each and then the Government could make up the rest through GiftAid.”

The next fundraiser will be a pudding evening at the venue from 7pm on Saturday, March 4.

For more information or to support the appeal, call David on 01395 567430.