The re-build of Seaboard Memorial Hall coupled with the recent appointment of marketing and general staff has marked its transformation into a thriving community centre.

There has been a community hall in the village of Balintore in Easter Ross since the mid 1940s but July saw the opening of a replacement building on the same site which is more geared towards the needs of today's community.  Gone is the old hall, which could only cater for single groups at a time.  Now community groups and individuals are enjoying the benefits of a staffed community resource, which has experienced a rise in both attendance figures and earnings as a result.

To make best use of the new building, the Seaboard Memorial Hall Committee has secured funding to appoint two part-time general assistants who will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the centre for the next six months. This will allow the new hall to extend its opening times to 10 hours a day.  The committee has also enlisted the services of a marketing consultant to help promote and develop the centre as a venue for health care issues, traditional folk and music events, arts, drama and sports activities.

The project has been financed from committee funds as well as £10,000 of joint grant assistance from the Community Economic Development fund and Ross and Cromarty Enterprise.
 
Maureen Ross, chair of the hall committee expressed her delight with the recent transformation:  "The increase in the number of people using the hall is a result of two things.  Firstly, we now have a brand new facility that is bright, clean and tailored for the community's needs.  But most importantly, we have staff dedicated to running and promoting the hall, and we have already seen an increase in user numbers as a result.

"Having these staff in place has made a huge difference to what we can offer the community. I could only pursue development ideas for the hall in the evenings and that was really hard work.  Now we can actively promote our hall as well as develop ideas for other uses. 

"With several rooms we can now host more activities than before.  More people have joined the mother and toddlers group simply because the surroundings are much more welcoming than in the old hall.  We have a café and a well-equipped kitchen, and many people use the community room for photocopying and word processing.  We even have an indoor bowling open day coming soon, as well as holding weekly martial arts and other sports classes."

The hall aims to cater for all the community's needs.  As well as being a sports and arts venue, it holds health clinics with the district nurse and chiropodist visiting regularly.

Maureen Ross has high hopes for the hall:  "It has been a great success story so far but the work doesn't end here.  So far we have doubled our monthly income with the changes we've introduced, but we aim to turn this into a real business by becoming financially self-sufficient."

Nicola Ewing from Ross and Cromarty Enterprise said:  "We are pleased to have been able to assist this project and enable a proactive committee to become even more self-supportive.  One of our most important objectives is to promote the advancement of education through the provision of social, recreational and educational facilities, and supporting community facilities such as the Seaboard Community Hall is one way we can achieve this."