Giant mural mooted as welcome to town centre A GATEWAY into Hexham town centre could soon host a giant mural depicting life in the town. Hexham’s deputy mayor Steve Ball is willing to seek funding for the ambitious scheme which would transform a “dirty, tatty side wall” of the town’s community centre, on Gilesgate. Coun. Ball, who is also chairman of Hexham Community Centre’s chairman of trustees, as well as a member of Hexham Town Council, said he wanted to gauge support for the scheme. He’s also keen find out what people want to be included on the mural, a project which could involve an artist in residence working alongside community groups.
Hexham Community Centre volunteers turned out to sing carols and deliver meals on Christmas Day. LIFE has changed beyond recognition for many people over the past year, for organisations as well as individuals. But throughout the past 12 months, Hexham Community Centre has been a beacon of light for those who have needed it the most. The popular venue, on Gilesgate, had already worked hard to get itself on to a sound financial footing before the pandemic struck, with Hexham Youth Initiative, Slimming World, and taekwondo classes among its regular user groups. Yet when usual activities came to a grinding halt last March, Hexham Community Centre evolved to function in a different way to serve the town in the midst of a pandemic.
A BUDGET fit for unprecedented times has been approved for Hexham in 2021/22. And that means an emergency fund which has supported many of the town s community organisations, will continue to be available in the next financial year, starting in April. Hexham Town Council approved the budget at its latest meeting, which took place via videolink on Monday. It had earlier been drawn up by the authority s finance and general purposes committee. Chairing Monday s meeting, the Mayor of Hexham, Coun. Bob Hull said there would be an increase of less than two per cent for the coming year, taking the total increase over the past three years to about four per cent.
THE legacy of a talented young musician and photographer is living on - more than five years after his untimely death. The Tyne Valley was rocked when Dane Curran, who was a popular youth leader with Hexham Youth Initiative, died at the age of just 21 in September 2015. A keen motorcyclist, the likeable Allendale man died after he was involved in a motor cycle accident on the M11 near Duxford in Cambridgeshire. It later emerged that Dane had been attempting to emulate a journey to France which his grandfather had made many years earlier. Despite the passing of time, Dane’s selfless commitment to helping others, and making sure they had fun, remains at the heart of life at Hexham Youth Initiative.