East Hagbourne - Pavilion

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Planning

The original plan for the smaller “clubhouse” has planning permission and funds granted by the SODC.

The expanded plans do not, and the first step is to obtain planning permission. This was submitted early in 2005 but was subsequently withdrawn in order for us to answer detailed concerns raised by the Planning Department regarding traffic access to Great Mead. The SODC Planning department were very helpful and the issues were resolved so that planning application could be resubmitted in mid-November.

Funding

Progress on the funding has been slower than expected, however, our current major grant application is to the Football Foundation and this is still under review by the FA. Regarding Sport England, the application procedure was rather drawn out and ultimately unsuccessful because Sport England and the Football Foundation are both considered to be Lottery Funds and we are only allowed to go to this well once. The Football foundation has greater resources than Sport England and so we chose to pursue the former application and withdraw the latter. Other avenues are also being explored

Starting work

In the meantime, we wanted something to show for all the hard work so we have decided to proceed with the tennis courts in order to meet the highest priority needs as identified by our village sports survey. We have already received planning permission for these.

We would like to have the Tennis court surface also used for other sports, a so-called Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) and we are discussing with the FA if they would support funding for a MUGA is it were suitable for training. We would really prefer to create a MUGA rather than just tennis courts. as it makes the facility more inclusive but the Parish Council cannot afford to fund the MUGA from existing funds and at the moment the SODC Grant does not cover either the courts or a MUGA. We hope that eventually the SODC grant could be put towards the MUGA but this requires further deliberations by SODC Councillers.

Next steps:

Progress Panning approval from SODC for expanded scheme.

Progress Funding application to football association.

Make further applications to funding bodies

Progress Playground as separate project (link to playground page)

If you have any comments or would like to get involved in the project (in any capacity!) then please contact Doug Amos on douga@synplicity.com.

Doug Amos

On behalf of East Hagbourne Parish Council Sports and Leisure committee – November 2005