WETHERSFIELD will play host to two fundraising events this weekend as it looks to add the finishing touches to provide the village with a new multi-purpose sports pavilion.

The village’s playing field committee is nearing its �470,000 target to build the facility on the playing fields.

To push it even closer to that target, an annual fun day is taking place this Saturday (June 19) on the playing fields, from 2pm to 7pm.

The event will be military themed - and will include a display by the Army, as well as live music, bar, barbecue and a bouncy castle – with half the funds going to the Help for Heroes charity and half going to the pavilion project.

Then, on Sunday, Wethersfield Cricket Club is hosting a six-a-side cricket tournament, also on the playing fields, from 10am to 8pm.

Entrance is free and there will be a bar, barbecue and teas available to spectators from midday onwards. All proceeds go towards the new Wethersfield pre-school and pavilion.

Plans for the new pavilion have already been nodded through by Braintree District Council and will give Wethersfield a state-of-the-art, modern facility it craves.

The pavilion will include a main community hall, kitchen, toilets, offices, changing rooms and showers. It will also incorporate as many recycled materials as possible, will use rainwater from the roof for flushing toilets and will be heated by ground source heat pump.

A spokesman for the Wethersfield playing field committee behind the project said: “We have been working hard in the last couple of years to secure funding for this project and we are nearly there.

“We still want lots of people to come down to the two events this weekend and support our pavilion project, as well as Help for Heroes.”

Building work on the new pavilion is due to start at the end of the month and is on course to be opened by next Spring.