AN ARMY of professional cleaners descended on Savernake Street Social Hall in Old Town yesterday on a mission to restore the community centre to its former glory in time for a busy summer of activities.

Leaving no corner or surface unscoured – or high-pressure hosed – the 23-strong team from international firm Kärcher threw themselves into their task with the same aplomb they showed last month, sprucing up the London Eye.

The big clean, believed to be the centre’s most thorough in living memory, was the culmination of months of work for Eastcott Community Organisation, a group of volunteers who took over the management of the centre in May.

Six weeks ago, they entered the company’s online competition Kärcher Cleans Britain to win a professional clean-up. To their delight, Savernake Hall was selected along with two other community centres out of hundreds across the country.

“We are so thrilled,” said committee chairman Caroline Davies-Khan. “It’s incredible. We took over the building from Swindon Council in May this year and it’s a lovely fresh start for us.

“The hall was painted by the Midcounties Co-Op last week and now that we’ve won this competition, Kärcher have been doing the windows, floors, even the chairs and seat pads.

“This has been a transformation. It’s extremely exciting to see everything bright and sparkly.

“It will help us move forward to try and maintain the hall.”

While they had been warned the Kärcher team’s deep clean would be unlike anything they had seen before, the volunteers were nonetheless baffled by the convoy of vans pulling up outside at the hall yesterday morning and the cleaners’ extraordinary efficiency.

“I’ve been really surprised at the extent of the work they are doing,” said Caroline.

“They are doing every nook and cranny. What really surprised me was the number of different cleaning products they have to do different jobs.

“It’s adding to the pride that people feel in their community centre.

“We feel that by having the place looking its best it will help us hire out the hall and with what we are trying to achieve: to encourage people to come and use the hall.

“We will be starting new things in September like Yoga and crafts. And we would like more sports here.”

Phil Springall, marketing manager of the Home and Garden Division at Kärcher, said: “Kärcher Cleans Britain is a project close to our hearts which we hope will really encourage people to take pride in their communities.

“We had a number of community centres on our shortlist but Eastcott Community Organisation’s story about what they were trying to do with the community centre and where they wanted to take it touched us.”

  • Eastcott Community Organis-ation is looking for a treasurer and more helpers. For more information, email eastcottcommunity@ yahoo.co.uk or pop in to the hall on Savernake Street.