A woman’s institute group is fundraising once again after a hole opened up in the building’s floor less than a year after it was hit by vandals.

Members of the WI committee in Kennington, Ashford, are attempting to raise £35,000 to cover the costs of the replacement floor and have had to call on the community to help.

It is not the first time the hall has faced costly repairs as in July last year, nine people were hurt after an 18th birthday party was gate-crashed.

The hall was left with £1,000 worth of damage which the commitee claimed on their insurance, but only three quarters of it was covered.

The committee says following this, it now no longer allows teenage birthday parties at the hall.

“It is a shame because we are obviously losing funding from doing this,” Chris Tester, president of the WI and hall manager said.

“We cannot afford for this sort of thing to happen so feel it is safer to not allow teenage parties.”

Now, the group is facing a bill of up to £35,000 for the floor to be replaced.

“Unfortunately we had noticed that the floor was not as level as it had been in the past,” Mrs Tester said.

“We had it assessed and it was fine but unfortunately someone stepped on a weaker part and a big hole appeared and from that we had several specialists come and look at it and were told there is a dry rot problem in the joists under the floor.

“We were told the best thing to do was to replace the whole floor, including the joists.

“This floor is much admired so we wanted one that is like for like. The basic estimate for the wood is about £28,000 but it also needs to be sanded and then it needs to be sealed which will be well over £30,000.”

The team has come up with fundraising initiatives to encourage the community to help them cover the costs including a buy a plank program.

“When the hall was built they did a buy a brick initiative to help fund it,” Tracey Boorman, program secretary said.

“We thought we could do a buy a plank at £5. We have already started and it has been a good initiative and we have made about £500 so far.

“We have been also been talking about doing a treasure hunt, a quiz, raise funds at Kennington Fair in June, a bacon butty morning which was extremely popular and a few other things.”

The WI branch in Kennington formed in 1918 and members will also be contributing to fund the floor.

“Because we are a charity, we will be going out for a high tea but a few weeks later, we will get that money back so that is our way of being able to also contribute,” Chris Bridges, treasurer and vice president said.

“We cannot use the hall so we thought we would go out and this way, we are raising money for the floor too.”

Committee members were keen to preserve it in its original form as best they could but they have been told the floor needs replacing sooner rather than later to avoid it becoming more costly in the long run and more unsafe.

“This hall is the centre of the community,” Mrs Tester said.

“It is used for so many clubs such as yoga, painting, table tennis, the church group and so many more.”

Ms Boorman added: “There are lots of aspects of the community who use this place.

“It is not just us ladies from the WI, it is the whole community it is important to.

“People have parties, anniversaries, and wakes here. We have a great catering team who is well-known in the community.”

The hall is also the home to a defibrillator because it is so central to residents and other services.

The hole in the floor, which is in front of a fire exit, has been covered and cordoned off but specialists have told the committee that the rest of the hall is still safe to use.

The group has paid a deposit and is now looking to raise the remaining balance in order to pay contractors once work is finished.

It is due to start on June 5 meaning the venue will be shut from that date.

The women said if the money is not raised, the charity will be forced into taking out a loan.