Three major sporting bodies have announced support funding for the new Shrewsbury Sports Village in excess of £2million.
The three bodies are:
The Football Foundation, the UK’s biggest sports charity, providing £1m
Sport England who are providing £972,000
and FIFA who are providing £75,000
Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council who are currently developing the site confirmed the funding this week.
The Sports Village will provide 16 mixed size sports pitches, a full size floodlit grass competition pitch and full size floodlit artificial turf pitch. External features also include a 1-km cycle track, 5 hard surface multi-sports courts and a skateboard and BMX plaza. Inside the Main Building there will be an 8 Court Sports Hall, 2 Squash Courts, a Climbing Wall as well as a Café/Bar area, multi-function room and Coach Education Suite.
Equally as important as the facilities are the planned programmes of use, concentrating on multi-sport, multi-generational activities, many of which will be supported by the funding bodies. The aim is to get as many people of different ages, backgrounds and abilities involved in some sporting activity and to provide the whole of Shrewsbury with a community training, meeting and activity point. Coaches will be trained on the site and volunteers will be invited to train and qualify as coaches also.
Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council Leader Peter Nutting said:
"This funding is not only a valuable contribution to the project but it also represents a high level of commitment from 3 major sporting bodies. This is an ambitious project that will benefit the whole community and in providing this level of funding, the Football Foundation, Sport England and FIFA are endorsing that fact. I’d like to pay tribute to the staff who have worked so hard to get us to this important stage."
The Shrewsbury Sports Village is scheduled to open early in 2006, though the grass pitches will not be available until the 2007 season to allow seeding to become established.
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