A NEW community building and pre-school with capacity for 33 children has been touted for Kings Somborne – freeing up space in the current village hall.

King Somborne Parish Council has applied to Test Valley Borough Council for the multi-use building on the Recreation Ground.

The new pre-school has been proposed to offer more space and appropriate facilities for the current Sombornes Pre-School which is housed in the village hall.

In the lodged application it states that there are a number of disadvantages to the current situation including the inability to extend pre-school hours to offer 30 hours funded childcare provided by the government due to commitments to other users, lack of dedicated facilities.

It also highlights that children’s work is unable to be displayed because equipment has to be packed away each day.

If the plan goes ahead, the parish council says, that it meet the needs of local parents for used to come, allow for a wider range of activities in services in the village hall and extra income.

Before submitting the plans a survey was carried out the which showed that 70 per cent of the community had used the village hall.

The statement says: “Currently the pre-school is housed within the King’s Somborne Village Hall but there are a number of disadvantages for the Preschool with this arrangement.

“The survey showed 65 per cent thought the Village Hall was inadequate for use as a pre-school and when asked about alternatives 82 per cent said they would like a purpose-built facility.”

It added: “The area of the recreation ground proposed for the development has historically only been used for informal junior ball sports. These activities were replaced and enhanced when the MUGA was built.”

Initially the parish council looked at extending the village hall but it was deemed not to be a suitable option.

In 2017 the parish council acquired the recreation ground with the opportunity to build a dedicated preschool building.