Local people in the Reeth area,
covering Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, are getting ready to
celebrate the opening of the new £650,000 sports pavilion and
floodlit all weather multi-use games area (MUGA).
The official opening of the new Reeth &
District Community Sports Club will take place at 1pm on Sunday,
September 4, at the Athletics Field, Orchard Lane, Reeth, DL11
6TT.
The new pavilion will provide Reeth AFC, 2
Dales Junior FC and Dales Cricket Club with modern purpose built
changing rooms, showers and club room, while the MUGA will allow
for training and practice sessions all year round. Additional
sports have already been introduced on the MUGA, including tennis
and carpet bowls and a successful 5-a-side football tournament has
been held. Further sports, such as netball and basketball
will be added in coming months. These new facilities will be
managed by a dedicated Management Committee with the aim of the
Club being self-supporting financially.
The project was funded with the help of a
£344,000 grant from the Football Foundation; the nation’s largest
sporting charity funded by the Premier League, the FA & the
government via Sport England. Since its launch in 2000, the
Foundation has awarded around 8000 grants worth more than £420m
towards improving grassroots sport, using this to attract
additional partnership funding of over £520m.
Derek Pollard, the Club’s Project Manager,
said: “Without the support from the Football Foundation from the
outset, the project would have been unlikely to succeed. This
strong initial backing from the Foundation was instrumental to us
raising the necessary match funding from Sport England, the county,
district & parish councils, The Millennium Trust, The
Clothworkers’ Foundation and the Trusthouse Charitable
Foundation. The project has also had the full support
of our MP, the Right Hon William Hague.”
“But we must not overlook the tremendous hard
work of other committee members and the continuous loyal support
from the local population in terms of donations, large and small,
and all those who have arranged fundraising events or helped in
many other ways. Well over £40,000 has been raised locally,
an outstanding achievement by a rural community.”
“We now look forward to providing local people
with excellent sporting facilities for the foreseeable future and
we hope to see many of you at the opening ceremony to be performed
by R W Miller Esq of Gunnerside Estate.”
“Finally, I must say thank you to Randall
Orchard for handling the project in a most professional manner and
providing us with new facilities of which we can all be justly
proud.”
Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the
Football Foundation said: “We are delighted that Reeth AFC and
2Dales Junior FC and the local community will have access to these
fantastic new facilities and commend the Club and the County FA for
their hard work in making this happen.”
“This is the latest example of thousands of
projects across the country that the Football Foundation is
supporting with money provided by our funding partners – the
Premier League, the FA and Government.”
Sport England Regional Champion for Yorkshire, Yuri Matishchen,
said: “One of our major aims is to increase participation in sports
across all age groups, genders and levels of ability and this
investment in Reeth Sport Pavilion is a perfect example of
this. By providing these new facilities, more of the
community can get involved and play a wider variety of sports.”
August 24, 2011