Funding of £71, 598 has been agreed by the Scottish Rural Development Programme.

ACHA must match this figure and with grants of £30,00 from Viridor Landfill Credits, £10,000 from the Robertson Trust, £5,000 from the Gannochy Trust, £5,000 from Scottish Borders Community Grant Scheme, £2,000 from the Bernard Sunlay Charitable Trust and £1000 from the Erskine Cunningham Hill Trust, the association is well on track for achieving the £149,000 required for the hall upgrade.

A further £4000 has been secured from Regional Screen Scotland for the provision of cinema equipment.

It is intended to form a cinema group later in the year and show regular films.

ACHA chairman Bill Black said: "This is great news for the village. We have been working for several years to raise the necessary funds and have several other applications pending.

"We expect to have enough to complete the upgrade later this year.

"We will then have a modern facility available for clubs, societies, private functions, meetings etc."

ACHA was formed in 2005 when the former church hall was donated to the association by the Ayton church congregation in the hope that it could be upgraded to a modern facility for the benefit of the community.

A village survey and a feasibility study were completed before it was decided to go ahead with the upgrade.

The hall is situated just off the High Street, next to the Black Bull.