Villagers draw up sport plans
A VILLAGE group is in the final weeks before submitting plans for a new and improved sports facility.
Weedon Sports Association is drawing up plans for a new £600,000 sporting facility on the village’s Jubilee Field.
Association chairman Tony Wincott said: “We have adjusted the plans to make the footprint slightly smaller since talking to the various parties and sports clubs involved.
“It’s going to have changing rooms built to FA standards with full disability facilities.
“They’ll also be a small function hall, a meeting room, plus kitchen and bathrooms.
“We’re hoping to get a planning application in during August.”
The association presented its plans to Weedon Bec Parish Council, which administers the sports field on behalf of the community on Tuesday evening.
Mr Wincott said: “The meeting went well. I think they’ve still got a few more questions for us.
“Hopefully another meeting will answer everything they want to know and then they can get behind the plans.”
Raising the cash to pay for the planning application to be drawn up, and for the building itself, has been hard work.
Mr Wincott said: “Until we get planning permission there’s very few organisations that will give us grants to pay for it all.
“We are on Sport England’s radar. We’ve had calls from them asking about the project so hopefully we’ll be able to get some funding from them.
“Up to now we’ve had to rely on volunteers and pro bono work to get this far.
“We went through ProHelp which put us in touch with local firms that do pro bono work. That includes things like quantity surveyors. We’ve also had some work done looking at the ground and geology of the site to make sure it’s okay to build on.
“We’ve now just got a final pre-submission meeting with planning officers at Daventry District Council to go over the final alterations we’ve made to the proposals before we submit the application.
“Those meetings used to be free but since we started with this project DDC has decided to start charging, and that’s about £300 for us. For a group that relies on volunteers that’s a lot. Hopefully we’ll be able to claim that back from DDC as a grant though.” n Email views to editorial@ daventryexpress.co.uk
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Friday 24 May 2013
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