A village in North Yorkshire is celebrating after successfully applying for funding to improve its sports provision.

Faceby Village Hall has received a donation of £1,000 from Persimmon after making an application to the house builder’s Community Champions initiative.

Sarah Loftus from Faceby Village Hall hosted representatives from Persimmon and North Yorkshire Councillor David Hugill to take receipt of a cheque for £1,000 formally. The donation from Persimmon has been used to purchase an outdoor table tennis table to improve the range of sporting activities available for local people.

Sarah Loftus, Faceby Village Hall said: “A huge thank you to Persimmon for helping us to complete the first stage of our improvements to Faceby Village Hall Recreation Ground to make it an attractive space for the whole community. Our new outdoor table tennis table will be enjoyed by local residents for many years to come and will contribute to making the recreation ground a fantastic social space for our community, nestled in the beautiful surroundings of the Cleveland Hills.”

Councillor David Hugill, North Yorkshire Councillor for Hutton Rudby & Osmotherley, said: “I’m delighted that Persimmon has chosen to support Faceby Village Hall to help them improve their recreation offering. It’s fantastic to see privater companies working with local groups to improve the community.”

Sean Taylor, Managing Director at Persimmon Teesside added: “It was great to visit Faceby Village Hall recently to learn more about their projects. Charities and organisations are increasingly asked to do even more whilst encountering rising costs. Our Community Champions initiative is designed to provide support to those groups that make a real difference in local areas.

“Local village halls like this play such an important role in communities, and I hope this donation goes some way to helping Faceby Village Hall continue to go from strength to strength.”