Plans go in for new £700K Manea community pavilion

A village is set to get a state-of-the-art sports pavilion goes to plan.

Manea Parish Council has submitted plans to build a £700,000 pavilion, which will be named the Maurice Short Community Pavilion and replace existing outdated facilities on the village playing field.

Maurice, who died aged 93 in 2020, was a stalwart of the playing field and the village football team acting as a linesman and referee for many many years. He ran the weekly football draw and acted as groundsman and marking out the pitch for well over 70 years, retiring when he was 90.

The council is stumping up around £150,000 towards the cost, with at least £40,000 of that money coming from Section 106 cash – contributions paid by developers towards amenities – the rest of the money will be coming from various funding sources.

The new pavilion will included a function room, but parish clerk Alan Melton said the aim was not to compete with the existing village hall or Royal British Legion Club and whilst there will be a bar facility it will not be licensed.

“It would make an ideal venue for a kids party because of the green space and close proximity to the play area, that’s the sort of event we anticipate being held at the pavilion,” said Mr Melton.

He said the parish council also homes the function room will offer facilities to local schools to use as an outdoor classroom so they can make more use of the neighbouring pit for nat

A design and access statement explains the current pavilion is no longer fit for purpose and does not meet current guidelines and recommendations for welfare as there is a shared access with toilets used by players, officials, spectators and hall users.

The facilities are tired and outdated and cannot be refurbished.

The aim says the statement is to retain the exisitng pavilion while the new one is built to retain continuity.

It adds the new building has been designed to minimise impact on the openness of the recreation ground and to be closer to the improved parking facilities.

The existing overgrown Tarmac path from the main site entrance and car park will be cleaned, repaired and paving slabs laid too the front and sides of the new pavilion to give a clean and clear access to the new building.