Thousands of locals and visitors to Saundersfoot are set to benefit from lottery funding, granted this week, which will bring to fruition long-awaited plans for the re-build of Saundersfoot's Regency Hall.

The announcement by the Big Lottery confirms a grant of £500,000, under its People and Places Programme in Wales, which will see the demolition of the 50-year-old building, currently well past its sell-by date and replacing it with a modern, eco-friendly community hall, benefiting the local community and the surrounding area.

Neville Boughton-Thomas, chairman of the Regency Hall management committee, said: "We are delighted to receive this grant from the Big Lottery Fund to help us to build a sustainable, fully-accessible hall, and enable us to provide vastly-improved facilities for existing users, along with a wide range of activities and services not currently available in the area. Although we are still awaiting confirmation of the Welsh Assembly Government's contribution to complete our funding requirements, the substantial grants now in place from the Lottery, Pembrokeshire County Council and other funders entitle us to be confident that we will be able to commence the demolition and re-build programme in September this year."

The project is envisaged to be completed within 12 months and will offer meeting rooms, library and IT suite, youth and children's areas, leisure, educational activities and services for both locals and visitors, along with state-of-the-art theatre, concert and film-show facilities.