ST DAVID’S Church in Bettws held a dedication ceremony on Tuesday night to celebrate the opening of its new hall.

The hall has been paid for entirely by the people of St David’s and the local community, who raised £80,000.

The Reverend Henry Davies, St David’s vicar, said: “The faculty process, the planning process and the church involvement with the building works were all undertaken by lay people from St David’s. “We would like to say thank you to everyone who has helped us to raise the money.

We should also like to thank DJ Builders and the architect Steve Morgan of Steve Morgan Associates. We will be using the hall for Sunday School, youth clubs, all sorts.”

The Hall was dedicated by the Bishop of Monmouth, the Rt Revd Dominic Walker and the Mayor of Newport, Councillor John Guy, also attended the service.

Caryl Davies, the vicar’s wife, said: “The dedication went extraordinarily well, it was excellent.

Lots of people came along and thought it was wonderful and had a really good time.

Everybody was extremely happy and pleased with how the hall turned out, and there was a huge sense of pride in knowing that we had raised all the money for it ourselves. We had a bit of food, and music, it was a lovely evening. The building of the hall has been a long time coming, and we are all delighted with it.”