A NORTH Lancashire village hall with a leaking roof, no title deeds and "a committee of one" is to get a helping hand.

Elderly George Birkett is the sole surviving committee member of Crag Bank Village Hall, and has been running the Carnforth venue almost single-handedly.

Now, Carnforth Town Council has decided to help the community stalwart put the 1980s hall on a firmer footing by paying for much-needed repairs, creating a fuller committee and a valid constitution, and registering the land to protect it from developers.

Popular playgroup and pre-school Crag Bank Under Fives meets Monday to Thursday, 9.30am-4pm, every week at the hall. Jane Halbard and Julie Wyatt, who run the Ofsted-registered sessions for 50 local youngsters, described the hall as 'fantastic'.

They said they would welcome any improvements, such as a 'desperately needed' phone line, at the building where Crag Bank Under Fives has been in business for 30 years.

"The village hall has been an asset to our nursery and allowed us to fundraise for a number of years to create our fabulous outdoor environment for our children 0-four years," stated Jane and Julie.

"The hall benefits from a large spacious hall and a small classroom used for our pre-school. It is wheelchair friendly and is on one level.

"Mr Birkett has been of great assistance in attending to the day-to-day running of the village hall along with our dedicated treasurer, Julie Davey."

Carnforth Town Council is to work with Mr Birkett on repairs such as fixing the roof and car park fence, and polishing the floor, using money from its community benefit bund.

"The council sees the village hall as an asset to the community of Carnforth, particularly people in Crag Bank," said town clerk Philip Charnley, "and they are worried about if something happened to Mr Birkett, then what would happen to it?

"We have a community benefit fund which comes from us having a wind turbine, and what benefits the community more than a village hall?"

Mr Charnley stressed that the council was "not taking over" the building, but simply offering help. He added: "It's also been disclosed that the land that the hall stands on isn't registered and we can't find any title deeds, so we are going to apply to the Land Registry to get it registered in the name of the community; then nobody can just come in and tear it down and build flats."

At a recent meeting of Carnforth Town Council's asset management committee, it was agreed that when the hall's new board of trustees is established, Cllr Elizabeth Aspin should represent the council. A plaque is also to be put up to mark the community benefit fund paying for the work.

- For more about Crag Bank Under Fives, call 07870-816771 or visit the Facebook page.