LONG-AWAITED plans for a new £400,000 community centre in Cullingworth will be unveiled this month.

The volunteer committee driving the project will reveal blueprints for a building that will replace the existing Cullingworth Village Hall.

The Village Hall Renewal Committee will hold its public consultation event in the existing Station Road building from 4.30pm to 7pm on July 20.

Residents will be able to view the plans, talk with committee members, meet the architects Langtry Langton and give feedback.

Kathryn Toledano, deputy chairman of the Renewal Committee, said the project is making good progress.

The new village hall will be built with windfall cash coming to Cullingworth due to a major housing development currently underway at Manywells Brow.

Barratt David Wilson Homes last year applied to build 233 homes and 2,160 sq metres of commercial floor space on former industrial land at the site.

Bradford Council planners ordered the company to donate £410,000 through the ‘section 106’ scheme, which ensures large-scale developers contribute towards community facilities to offset the impact of an increased population as a result of new homes.

The council last September voted to spend all the Manywells cash on a new village hall and adjoining pre-school facility.

The new complex will be built next to Cullingworth medical centre, rather than on the site of the existing wooden village hall.

At the time, the decision was described as “brilliant for the village” by Councillor Simon Cooke, who represents Bingley Rural ward on Bradford Council.

He said the existing hall in Station Road, built as a temporary structure 40 years ago, would be woefully inadequate for the needs of a larger village.

The existing hall has only one large room with limited facilities, and has to turn away potential regular and one-off users.

The Cullingworth Pre-School, which uses another part of the building, cares for about 60 local children and has received an ‘outstanding’ grade from Ofsted inspectors.

Since receiving news of the section 106 decision, the renewal committee has continued to fund raise and apply for grants to kit out the new building.

The campaign for a new village hall was launched in 2012.

The wooden building, formerly Keighley Salvation Army’s headquarters, was moved plank-by-plank to Cullingworth in 1973.

At the time, the building was described as a “white elephant”, but it has been heavily used ever since as a base for scores of community groups.