Community life in Didcot is set for a £550,000 boost as work has started on a new youth and community centre.

And it is thanks in part to a £250,000 bequest.

The tired Didcot All Saints’ Youth and Community Hall in Roman Place, off Foxhall Road, is being replaced with a modern facility due to open in March after a eight-year fundraising drive.

The church’s concrete temporary building was given a life span of 25 years when it was put up about 40 years ago.

The new hall will also have a meeting room, kitchen, office, disabled toilets and disabled access.

Project co-ordinator Colin Campbell said: “More than £550,000 has been raised to replace the existing, dilapidated hall with a modern, environmentally efficient building, fit for the ongoing needs of the community.

“The building has been stood there well over 40 years and it has become more and more dilapidated over the years. The cost of the repairs would have outweighed the cost of a new building.”

The project was helped along by the £250,000 left to the church by Didcot resident Joyce Kneller who died more than five years ago.

All Saints vicar, the Rev Karen Beck, said: “To receive a legacy like that is overwhelming. It is a hugely generous gift. From what people have told me she would be pleased to see it spent on this.”

Didcot First development manager Di Chesterman said: “We know that Didcot is fairly short of community halls and spaces, and obviously it will bring huge benefits to the community especially in that area of the town where there is nothing else. It will be a huge asset that lots of different groups will be able to benefit from.”

South Oxfordshire District Council contributed £100,000 and Oxfordshire Stronger Communities Alliance £20,000.

The church council gave £15,000 and £73,904 was collected through fundraising, small grants and donations.

Waste company Biffa gave a grant of £46,000 and Wren, the organisation which distributes landfill tax credits, gave £44,989.

Scout, Cub and Guide groups currently use the hall along with the All Saints’ Church Sunday School.

Marion Fountain, of 23rd Didcot Scouts, said the new building would allow more community groups to use the facility.

She said: “It was well over its life expectancy. The heating system was a bit temperamental and the whole building was subsiding so balls always ended up in one corner. Parts of it were very damp.”

SODC cabinet member Bill Service said: “Supporting community initiatives is important to the council, so we are delighted that money we have provided has helped Didcot All Saints turn their dream of having a new youth and community centre into reality.”