News

Council gives sport facilities £470,000 boost

By Pete Castle
June 17, 2010

SPORTING facilities are to get a boost as plans are drawn up to make Aldershot Park a more attractive destination for the sport stars of the future.

The proposals come as Rushmoor council leaders prepare to discuss a £470,000 investment in the Aldershot Park Pavilion, used principally by Aldershot and Fleet Rugby Club and a number of football clubs.

The cash injection will come in a two-part transformation of the current outdated building, with new changing rooms, accessible toilets, a social area, kitchen and storage room.

Rushmoor’s cabinet committee will discuss the plan next Tuesday (June 22).

Peter Amies, head of community and leisure, said that the building work was a much-needed investment in a successful and thriving community club.

“It is quite an old building and was designed to just be a football pavilion, but it is now used for rugby as well,” he said.

“It needs a lot of work to be done on it so we will take the opportunity to bring it back up to standard and make it fit for purpose for the next 20 years.”

Mr Amies said that if all went to plan, building work could begin before Christmas and be completed by spring next year.

He added that while the new buildings were going up, the council would look to capitalise on the location of several sports clubs in Aldershot Park by creating a new centre for sport, with extra help in marketing and administration from the council for existing facilities.

As well as Aldershot and Fleet Rugby Club, Aldershot Pools, five-a-side football pitches, Rushmoor Gymnastics Academy, Connaught Leisure Centre, Aldershot Cricket Club and a fishing club all have facilities within a few hundred yards of each other.

As part of the plans, the existing horseshoe-shaped pavilion in the park will be extended on both sides, with the new social area and tearoom filling the gap in the middle.

The council is planning to complete the work in two phases. The first will include the refurbishment of eight changing rooms as well as new toilets and a kitchen, at a cost of £470,000.

The majority of the cash, £300,000, will come from contributions to council coffers provided by developers, £70,000 from other sources including National Lottery funding, and the remaining £100,000 from a Rugby Football Union (RFU) grant.

The funds for the second phase, which will create the new social area and storage room, costing £160,000, will have to be found before the next round of building work can begin.

Malcolm Thomas, the rugby club chairman, said that the new clubhouse was essential to back up the club’s expansion and strong youth section that it has built up in recent years.

Aldershot and Fleet was one of just 23 clubs in the country, including Premiership sides, to be awarded a whole club ‘seal of approval’ from the RFU.

The club has 70 senior players and more than 200 juniors on its books.

“We have got a fantastic team of volunteers doing a fantastic job,” he said.

“We now need to back them up with some good facilities like showers and toilets. It’s a long time overdue and it’s what the club deserves.”

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