BELHUS Cricket Club, which has its main ground at the North Stifford village green, has secured Olympic legacy funding worth £40,000 from Sport England’s Inspired Facilities fund and the club has received a double boost with an identical amount from the Veolia Mardyke Trust. The funding will be used for a much-needed renovation of the club’s existing pavilion and dressing room accommodation.
Sport England have revealed that more than 1,000 local sports projects across the country have now received National Lottery funding through Inspired Facilities, which is part of the £150 million Places People Play legacy programme. Every sports facility that receives funding will carry the London 2012 Inspire mark – celebrating the link to the Games. It has also been revealed that Belhus Cricket Club’s successful funding application is one of 310 projects across England to receive lottery investment in the third – and latest – round of the Inspired Facilities fund.
Thurrock Councillor Charlie Curtis, Chair of the Veolia Mardyke Trust said: “We’re really pleased these works will be going ahead soon. Belhus Cricket Club is a fantastic local club with a tremendous coaching programme for young people, and this extension to their pavilion will help the club to keep up the good work in the area.”
Sport England Chairman, Richard Lewis, said: “This National Lottery investment is helping us deliver a lasting sporting legacy from last year’s successful Olympic and Paralympic Games. With so many clubs having benefitted from this fund already and building on the success of last summer, this is the legacy people want for their local community.”
Club President Jim Robertson said: “This really is fantastic news that funding for this major project has been approved. On behalf of everyone at Belhus Cricket Club, I would like to express our heartfelt thanks to both Sport England and the Veolia Mardyke Trust for their support of our community-based club. In recent years, our club has expanded significantly and this funded development will enable us to provide greatly improved facilities for our visitors and to meet the demands of our increasing membership”.
Many more communities can still benefit from the Inspired Facilities fund, with a further two rounds remaining. Bids will be accepted for the fourth round of funding from 4th March 2013. Sports clubs can find out more at www.sportengland.org/inspiredfacilities. The Veolia Mardyke Trust is also open to providing funds for clubs and other organisations in Thurrock and can help with a wide range of projects that benefit the public – see www.mardyke.org.uk
Great news for our sporting communities, thanks to Violia again for supporting our COMMUNITY sportsclubs, this is big news for all aspects of sport in Thurrock
Just a shame that the local village hall committee do not support sport or the local community who socialise with us or those that use playarea equipment on the village green, by locking the community (Violia paid for) car park at every opportunity, they are putting youngsters at risk as we have to park elsewhere and have to often cross the road, a mother with a few kids struggles to keep the children safe from passing traffic when they should be parking in the car park to use the nice play area facilities, (something else paid for by Violia), I note now the car park is signed as PRIVATE, this cannot be right, go back to 1959 when these facilities were given to the community by Lord Sherwood for use of the villagers and local sportsmen.