TOSSIDE Community Hall is celebrating 13 years of successful community service by replacing all the lighting in the building with modern energy-saving fittings and cutting its electricity bill by a quarter.

Thanks to grants from two local major funding agencies, Lancashire Environmental Fund and the Forest of Bowland AONB Sustainable Development Fund, work can now start on the £9,000 project to replace every light fitting inside and outside with new low energy LED bulbs.

Some £6,000 has come from the Lancashire Environmental Fund, which distributes grants through income from commercial users of landfill sites.

A further grant has been provided by the Forest of Bowland AONB, which funds projects that conserve and enhance the landscape, heritage and wildlife of the area.

The balance has come from the Bolton by Bowland, Gisburn Forest and Sawley Parish Council and the hall itself.

This initiative follows another major energy scheme four years ago when the hall's trustees installed solar panels and an air source heat pump to reduce heating costs and remove the need to use oil.

Chairman of the trustees, James Waddington, said: "We and the hall's user groups are grateful to the Lancashire Environmental Fund, the Forest of Bowland AONB and our Parish Council for helping us to save on energy costs and further reduce our carbon footprint.

"The project will also help us to keep charges for the hall to a minimum to encourage even more use of the building in the future."