A COMMUNITY centre being built at a cost of £1.8 million is estimated to open in September.

The new Stanway Community Centre will be located on the Western Bypass in Stanway, providing “much-needed” additional resources and increased capacity for residents.

Once complete, the 504 metres square building will offer a host of flexible facilities for the community to take advantage of.

Colchester Council gave the works the green light in July and granted a construction contract to Hutton Group.

Stanway Parish Council clerk, Donna Tristam said creating the new venue was vital due to the rapid expansion of the town.

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She said: “As everyone living within Stanway will be aware, over the last decade or so the place has grown in size exponentially, so there's a lot more people that want to stay local and use local facilities.

“Although we have a great community centre in Villa Road at the moment, there's capacity for something new there, there's more people that need to use those facilities.”

The new centre is set to have a large hall which will be fit to host indoor physical activities, while a welcoming foyer area and offices are to be built.

Two conference rooms will also feature at the site, as will disability friendly toilet and changing facilities and a large outdoor space.

Council bosses now hope the work will be complete by September.

Mrs Tristam added: “If you drive past you'll see there they're [Hutton Group] up to the second level and the roof trusses are going in now.

“You really do get a feel for the size and the kind of design of the building, so it's worth going down and having a look if you haven't already done so.

“The time frame we're looking at is late summer into autumn, I think that will be a great time because a lot of hirers always follow a school calendar, so they're looking to book from September.

“They treat that as a term - September to December – so if we can try and marry up with that, that would be the best result really.”