CONSTRUCTION of Haslewey, the town's £1 million community centre, that has been on the drawing board for nearly 15 years, will begin in the spring.

The plans were unveiled at the Haslemere and District Volunteer Bureau's agm last week by Edith Kinghorn, head of the local Age Concern branch.

In a presentation to Haslemere volunteers, councillors and the Mayor of Waverley, Mrs Kinghorn said that Hasleway was necessary because facilities for care of the elderly are inadequate. "We are doing our best," she said, "but our best is not good enough."

Age Concern is run at the Wey Centre twice a week, and although able to provide the elderly with hairdressing, chiropody and other services, it is fast running out of space.

She said: "At the moment hairdressing is taking place in the entrance to the ladies' toilet, and the chiropody chair is in the converted staff toilet. This is small in the extreme - the chiropodist's bum sticks out of the door!"

Haslewey - a combination of Haslemere and Wey Hill - has been designed as a community centre where people can stay the whole day or just for a coffee.

Mrs Kinghorn said: "It will be whatever it needs to be for each individual, and for the rest of the community. We can't just have it from 9-30 am until 4 pm."

The building will have the capacity for use by other community groups, such as Gateway, for people with learning difficulties, and the bridge club.

Referring to the time it has taken for Haslewey to become a reality, Mrs Kinghorn said that it had originally been intended as a day centre, but had evolved over the years to meet people's changing needs.

She said: "In the past 12-15 years, the expectations of the elderly have changed."

After the scheme failed on several occasions to secure lottery funds Haslewey was redesigned, but with the original intentions behind it remaining intact.

Mrs Kinghorn said:"We went back to the drawing board, chopped off a storey and redesigned the inside.What was very important though, was to have a large welcoming area; it can be intimidating if you walk in and everyone seems to know each other already."

The cost of the centre is estimated at £990,000, but Mrs Kinghorn said effectively it will be £1 million once it's finished, and possibly more.

She added that with £850,000 already secured, if they weren't able to raise the final £150,000 by the spring, there were a number of options to make the sure that the project could still go ahead.

These included cutting out storage space in the roof from the design, and other non-essential features.

To this end, Haslemere town councillor Fay Foster said at a recent meeting of the amenities sub-committee that a fundraising drive would begin in March to help equip the building.