Gloucestershire Mountaineering Club has secured Olympic legacy funding from Sport England’s Inspired Facilities Fund to enable the club to improve its club hut in Snowdonia, making it more suitable for group use.
The Inspired Facilities fund is part of the £135 million Places People Play legacy programme that is bringing the magic of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games into communities across the country. Every sports facility that receives funding will carry the London 2012 Inspire mark – celebrating the link to the Games.
Gloucestershire Mountaineering Club will receive £50,000 of National Lottery funding to upgrade the facilities at its club hut near Deiniolen, Snowdonia, which provides local mountaineers with low cost accommodation in one of the key areas in the UK for the sport. The club has owned the hut – two former quarrymen’s cottages – for fifty years, and to date all improvements have been funded by the club and mainly carried out by members in their spare time.
The improvement will expand the living and dining area by knocking down a wall and extending it into an existing bunkroom so that everyone has somewhere to sit. The club will extend the building to create 2 new bunkrooms to maintain the same number of beds (24) and also improve the drying facilities for wet clothes and outdoor equipment – an important feature given the changeable mountain weather!
The changes will make the facility suitable for groups which introduce young people to outdoor pursuits by providing separate male/female bedrooms and a large communal room for group activities. The club has already contacted several youth organisations in the county, who have expressed interest in using the facility once the improvements have been completed. Other mountaineering clubs and walking groups who use the hut have also welcomed the changes.
Sport England’s Chair Richard Lewis said: “This National Lottery investment will create a lasting sporting legacy for mountaineering and outdoor groups across Gloucestershire and further afield. This fund has really hit the mark with sports clubs in Gloucestershire. It shows we’re offering the legacy that people want for their local community. For hundreds of clubs and tens of thousands of people, 2012 will be the year their local sports facilities got better.”
Gloucestershire Mountaineering Club Chairman Paul Sheridan said: “We’re delighted to have been awarded this investment, which means we can upgrade the quality of our accommodation so it’s attractive to current and new participants to the sport and suitable for use by youth groups. We aim to have an outstanding facility as our 2012 Olympics legacy which will benefit our members, other UK mountaineering clubs and young people across Gloucestershire, and we hope it will encourage more people to take up mountaineering and other outdoor activities.”
The Gloucestershire Mountaineering Club is one of hundreds of projects across England benefitting from lottery investment through the second round of the Inspired Facilities fund. And Sport England today launched a further £10 million funding round to help local community sports groups to upgrade their facilities.
You can find out more at Sport England Inspired Facilities.
Places People Play is being delivered by Sport England, working partnership with the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the British Paralympic Association (BPA) with the backing of The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the London 2012 Inspire mark.
LOCOG Chair Seb Coe said: “This is a fantastic funding project that will deliver a real legacy from the London 2012 Games. It will provide a whole range of sporting opportunities for young people through improved facilities and will I hope inspire them to take up sport.”
Notes: For more information about the Gloucestershire Mountaineering Club and this project, photographs of the club hut or to arrange an interview, please contact Debbie Smith on 07778 790015 or email debbie.smith@helixpr.co.uk
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