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Tony James: Eastrea is going to get a village hall after a wait of fifty years - that's five-oh years. To tell us more about it is the Chairman of the Eastrea Village Hall Foundation, Brian Ford - but first, I want to ask him to tell us a bit more about his work as a broadcaster because, Brian, you have sat where I'm sitting for a great many years, haven't you? Ford: Yes, I have sat on your side of the desk for longer than I care to remember, and I have to say that sitting on this side is very much easier. So where did it all start? Your name is familiar to me of course, but I have always wanted to know a bit more about your background. Ford: Oh, I started broadcasting when we lived in Cardiff, and when BBC Wales was expanding from being a regional service into becoming the national service for the whole of Wales. As a result I learned about radio and television, including doing all the news programmes; and then in the 1970s there wasn't any science on Radio Four so I launched Science Now from London. That was great fun, indeed the programme only finished a couple of years ago so it had a long innings. I was even a founder-member of Start the Week on Radio Four. I am going to stand up out of respect. Ford: [Laughing] Sit down and face the microphone like a man, lad! Well, it's just wonderful to have you here in the studio. So tell me more about the Eastrea Village Hall? Why does it need one? Ford: There are two reasons, really; the first is that Eastrea is the only village of its kind that has simply never had a village hall. Secondly, there is a tremendous lack of halls in the area. Some of them have closed down in recent years, and others are having to be modernised to comply with the new disability access legislation. That applies even to the building we are in now - it doesn't offer access to the disabled, which is why the BBC are now planning to move you all into a new building nearer the centre of Peterborough. Don't give all our secrets away . . . So is the building project now guaranteed? Ford: I love the way that your links keep talking about Eastrea having now got its hall. It hasn't - what has happened is that we have taken another major step up the ladder. The village has been saving up for over fifty years. It was all started by Miss Tinkler, who used to live in a thatched cottage next door to the house where I now live. There's a bungalow there now, built in the 1960s, but Miss Tinkler began the village hall fund and that was back, I think, in 1944. The villagers have put together a fund of £60,000, out of their own pockets and their land, and that's a remarkable achievement for a small village like this. So you have this money, and planning permission is the next step? Ford: There have been several major landmarks we've had to pass - the first was getting a site agreed with the Council. There had been other sites in the offing previously, but the village had never managed to get one of them confirmed. This site has been agreed by the Council, which does seem to make it unlikely that they'd refuse planning permission. The second landmark was finalising a modern, state-of-the-art new building. It is now government policy that all public buildings should aim to be self-sufficient with regard to energy. The Prime Minister, after the Durban Summit, reminded everyone that in future out buildings will need to rely less on fossil fuels, and our new design has energy supplies from wind and from solar power, which makes it a very futuristic building and means that, for Eastrea, this is very much a new millennium project. You know, I could sit here all day and listen to you - that voice! Ford: Come now . . . But we must ask you to come back and talk to us again. We'd like to hear more about the progress of the hall - you are now applying for planning permission, but I'd assumed your plans were all confirmed now. Ford: No, we have to wait for planning. The problem is that you cannot apply to most of the fund-giving agencies until you already have confirmed planning permission. Once that hurdle has been passed we can approach the thirty agencies we have in mind and ask if they can agree to grant us their tranche of the money, but we do have to move up this rung of the ladder first. Do come back to tell us more; it would be a great pleasure to have you back in the studio again to tell us how the project develops.
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