DREAMS are today turning into reality at Trimley St Mary with work finally under way on a memorial to murdered schoolgirl Vicky Hall.Builders are digging the footings for the new £250,000 sports pavilion which will bear her name in her home village – and be used by hundreds of young footballers, boys and girls, and other sports players and community groups.

DREAMS are today turning into reality at Trimley St Mary with work finally under way on a memorial to murdered schoolgirl Vicky Hall.

Builders are digging the footings for the new £250,000 sports pavilion which will bear her name in her home village – and be used by hundreds of young footballers, boys and girls, and other sports players and community groups.

Contractors Heronbuild will work through the winter months and the pavilion should be completed by next spring.

Managing director Barry Blemings said: "It is a privilege to be awarded this contract and my workforce is looking forward to doing a quality job here and building an excellent facility for the village."

The Mendlesham-based firm has a 20-week contract to build the pavilion at Stennetts Memorial Playing Field.

Workers have already marked the site and started to dig the footings, the first stage which it is hoped will be complete by Christmas.

Bob Race, a member of the Evening Star-spearheaded fundraising trust which ran the appeal and chairman of Trimley Red Devils, which will manage the memorial pavilion when it is completed, said: "It is wonderful to see a start on site – we have all waited for this for so long.

"We had a fantastic response to the fundraising and it was a marvellous effort by everyone involved. Now we are at the moment everyone wanted to see and soon we will have a memorial to Vicky which will benefit the community at large."

Behind the scenes, Mr Race has been working hard for months preparing for the successful application for funding from the Football Foundation and also in overseeing the preparation of designs and the contracts.

Vicky's parents Graham and Lorinda, of Faulkeners Way, are delighted at the choice of project as it will be used mainly by young people but also the community.

The appeal raised £310,000 – £100,000 from fundraising, and a £210,000 grant from the Football Foundation, of which £161,000 will go towards the cost of the sports pavilion, and £50,000 for a football development programme.

The clubhouse will include four team changing rooms, showers, officials' rooms, storage, kitchen together with a community area, and is expected to cost around £240,000.

The football club has more than 150 players from under eights boys teams to the under 16 team. The new facilities are expected to attract many new players, including girls' teams.

Vicky, 17, went missing as she walked home from a nightclub in September 1999. A murder inquiry was launched after her body was found a week later in a ditch 24 miles away at Creeting St Peter.

WEBLINK: www.footballfoundation.org.uk