A turf cutting ceremony took place to celebrate the official start of work on site at Southampton's new facility, the Eastpoint Conference and Community Centre.

Contractors Kier Southern joined trustees of the centre for the ceremony which saw Eastpoint company secretary, Jean Roost, delivering an introductory speech about the history and valuable work of the Eastpoint Centre before ceremoniously cutting the first piece of turf to commemorate the start of the project.

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The new £10 million, three-storey development will provide 3,770sq m of bespoke training and conference space as well as meeting rooms for community groups, a social club and a restaurant area. The new centre will be located within the grounds of the existing Eastpoint Centre which has occupied an old school building since its conversion to community use 26 years ago. Many of the current users will transfer to the new building, with new groups welcome next summer when the doors to the new centre will open.

Kier Southern Director Martin Orr said: "Kier Southern is very pleased to be working with Eastpoint Centre Ltd on this very exciting and distinctive project. We are particularly pleased for the team of enthusiastic and dedicated people who have worked hard bringing the scheme to fruition and will now see their efforts transformed into such a fantastic local facility."

(CD/GK)