THE SEVERN Beach Scouts group celebrated the opening of its newly upgraded building last week.

Mafeking Hall in Pilning is owned by the group but is also used by various non-scouting groups, including the Women’s Institute and church coffee mornings.

An increase in the group’s numbers meant that they were outgrowing the hall and subsequently had to limit new entrants in the majority of the age ranges.

In order to remove these limitations, the group purchased a plot of land from their neighbour where they built a store room – to house the groups camping and activity gear.

This enabled the existing store room to be converted into a meeting room. A mezzanine floor was also added in the main hall to create further meeting space.

The work was completed by a local builder along with significant voluntary help from local people to help keep the costs down.

Building work was finished in July in order to get the hall ready for the start of the new term.

The group had undertaken significant fundraising for the project to fund the land purchase.

They also applied for a Biffa Award grant of £30,000 to cover the initial cost estimations which was awarded to the group in September 2013.

The work cost slightly more than initial estimations but the added costs were covered by local businesses, including Airbus.

Group Scout Leader Viv Frampton said: “These improvements have created additional areas to allow more young people to benefit from the weekly scouting events and activities, given us an opportunity to open a Scout Network group for 18 to 25 year olds and will facilitate further community use of the hall.”

An open day was held on Saturday, September 20 to show the improvements that had been made and was attended by members of the public as well as Filton and Bradley Stoke MP Jack Lopresti.

The 1st Severn Beach Scouts have grown over recent years and there are now 130 young people, both boys and girls, aged six to 18 years old who are members of the group.