Leverington Sports and Social Club unveil exciting plans for a new multi-use games area
A village sports and social club has unveiled exciting plans which could see a new £100,000 multi-use games area created for community use.
Leverington Sports and Social Club unveiled their proposals during a recent visit by local MP Steve Barclay, who has offered support in trying to secure the necessary funding.
Matthew Warren, the club's vice-chairman, is determined the project will go ahead sooner rather than later and said he is looking at three different options to make the MUGA a reality.
He explained the aim is to create the new facility on the current redundant tennis courts and said he had a meeting on Friday with a firm, which can not only provide a playing surface suitable for multiple sports including, football, rugby, hockey, netball and tennis, but could also begin work as early as February. It can also offer finance for the scheme.
Matthew said the club are discussing three other possible ways of funding the scheme, which is likely to cost around £100k. These include self-funding, through raising money by various events and a bank loan, grant aid or for him and a partner to jointly pay for it.
He said: "We are reluctant to go down the grant funding route because that will take the control of the project out of our hands. We could self-fund it through a bank loan and fundraising, but that could take time. There is also a possibility that I can fund half of it with a partner paying the other half.
"Whichever route we go down I'm determined this is going to get done as fast as possible, I really want to see that surface ready for use. We know there will be a lot of interest from other local clubs, we will of course use it ourselves. We have an adult football side as well as all the 12 youth teams that make-up the Leverington Youth Football Club.
"We have also had interest from local running clubs, and so we know we will be able to make an income from letting it out. We would also like it to be used during the day by organisations such as those for people with mental health or disability issues.
"We are going to discuss our funding options this week and should have a decision by the the weekend. This playing area will be a great asset not only to our club but also to the village.
