GRANTS totalling almost £130,000 are to be made to community projects in West Oxfordshire, including £30,000 for a project to turn Burford’s Warwick Hall into a community centre for the town.

West Oxfordshire District Council’s cabinet approved the grants at a meeting on Wednesday last week, with the largest single grant, of £42,500, going to Bladon Methodist Church for an extension and refurbishment project.

The smallest grant, for £141, was given to Witney Mills Cricket Club to help meet a £1,254 bill for the replacement of sight screens at the club’s ground in Newland.

As previously reported in the Witney Gazette, St John the Baptist Church in Burford plans to turn the Warwick Hall into a focal point for community activities and has already raised more than £3m for the £3.6m project.

The medieval building is to be renovated to provide a 200-seat auditorium, meeting rooms, a community cafe and kitchen.

The district council’s cabinet member for communities, Richard Langridge, said: “We’re extremely proud that we are able to offer these significant grants at a time when other councils are clawing back, or have already withdrawn, this type of funding.

“We believe the grants play an important role in supporting local communities and help them to secure other funding sources which, without our help, would not be forthcoming.”

The Rev Richard Coombs, vicar of St John the Baptist Church, said the aim was to have the building completed in spring 2016 to serve the church and the town as a venue for cinema, drama performances and recitals, community clubs and society meetings, as well as for private hire for events including weddings.

He said: “This is the only community building in Burford and this has been a dream of ours for some time. Because we want this to be a church and community project it means a huge amount to us that we have such a strong buy-in from the district council and we are very grateful for the grant. ”

The church has appointed Edgar Taylor builders, of Buckingham, as the main contractor for the project and some preparatory work on the site has begun.

The main phase of construction work is expected to begin in January.