MEMBERS of the Melksham Shed group are celebrating after being awarded a grant from the National Lottery Fund to help pay for a new building.

The group, which currently has its meeting place at the Forest Community Centre in Bowmans Court, has received a £5,000 grant as part of the National Lottery funding for community projects in the south west.

One of 62 projects to receive funding, Melksham Shed was awarded the money from a £1,702,662 pot which was split between groups to help improve their projects in local community.

Chris Pickett, of Woodstock Gardens, Melksham, chairman of the Shed, said: “It is great news, we are very grateful for being given this grant. We found out just before Christmas that we had been successful in the bid and then we received a notification telling us we would be receiving the money.

“When we first started in October 2014 we only had about four or five members but now we have about 20 people, at each meeting there are about eight to ten people which means it gets rather cramped in our current shed. The money means we will be able to buy two shipping containers and turn them into one space to accommodate our members.”

The community group welcomes older people in the community, men or women, to take part in social activities as well as providing company for those who may sometimes feel isolated.

“The Melksham Shed is very much a community project, we are there for the alleviation of loneliness. If people have retired from work and don’t have many people to see or things to do then this gives them the chance to meet new friends or old workmates and have a bit of fun in a social setting. We also have social and business meetings at the end of each month,” added Mr Pickett.

Now that the group has the funding for the shipping containers, they are on the hunt to purchase what will become their new base of operations.

“We have planning permission for the space behind the community centre, now we need to find a way of getting the shipping containers and moving them to the space, the money is sure soon to go after we have paid for all of that. We just need to decide on where we will get the containers from,” Mr Pickett said.

For more information on the Melksham Shed group visit melkshamshed.com