Its now Official and we can go public Sport England have approved our £454,000 bid for COACH and Taunton Deane’s Full Council signed off £200,000 from the sale of the TYCC land. We also now have £25,000 from Bishop Fox Trust Fund and are meeting Canoe England on 20th August regarding a bid for £50,000 that has made it through to stage 2 of their funding round. We are still short of about £100,000 – £150,000 but we will be going out to tender on 1st September. Please contact any of the COACH trustees if you know of any potential funders for the last bit required to build such a much needed facility. Sport England press release below.
Taunton’s Centre for Outdoor Activity and Community Hub is set to help more young people get into sport thanks £453,995 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Improvement Fund. The Club is one of 21 projects across England to share in over £7.1 million of National Lottery investment from the third round of funding.
The project will replace an existing toilet block with a sustainable, functional and flood resistant town centre facility on the banks of the River Tone, comprising changing accommodation, boat, cycle and equipment storage, refreshment, educational and community space and whilst the COACH team continue to seek further funding to ensure the Hub’s design and build isn’t compromised, this Sport England award will allow work to begin.
Cllr Norman Cavill, Executive Member, Taunton Deane Borough Council said “I am absolutely delighted to hear this great news, it will mean so much to the COACH team and all those who have worked so hard to reach this point. It is fantastic news to receive such a huge vote of confidence in their carefully worked up business plan that will now allow them to proceed with construction of a state of the art modern clubhouse. The real beneficiaries of this will be the local community with such a diverse range of water and other sports and activities being made available for a wide range of ages and abilities.
I am pleased that the Borough Council has been able to truly facilitate this marvellous development by the provision of a suitable site and a promise of funding which was essential in attracting this very welcome grant funding from Sport England. When completed it will attract many more members for training and practising and perhaps inspire future world class canoists or rowers from Taunton. Opportunity, that is what it is all about and I applaud their success so far.”
The latest round of the Improvement Fund focuses on facilities that will help get more young people playing sport. There are currently a record number of 3.9 million 16- to 25-year-olds playing sport every week, however, there is still more to do to help young people develop a sporting habit for life.
Sport England is investing between £150,000 and £500,000 to improve sports facilities so the changing demands of young people are met whilst delivering an improved sporting experience.
Sport England Property Director, Charles Johnston, said: “We know people have a better experience of sport when they have good facilities in which to play. This is why we’re investing in the Centre for Outdoor Activity and Community Hub to improve their facilities so they are more appealing young people, and help us to get them developing a lifelong sporting habit.”
Between 2012 and 2017, Sport England will invest £45 million of lottery funding through the Improvement Fund into medium-sized projects to improve grassroots sport facilities. The next round of funding will open on 3 September 2014.
