After months of hard work, we are delighted to announce that we have three bits of great news!
Firstly, we have been granted a 30 year lease of our building from BMBC! This gives us the security to progress the plans for Penistone Leisure Centre. Until this recent approval, we had been operating with a ‘tenancy at will’, which always meant we weren’t able to make longer term plans. Thankfully this new security allows us to progress our big refurbishment project!
Secondly, we have been granted planning permission to make the changes we have planned to the Leisure Centre! Fantastic news, which means the dream can really be a reality.
And thirdly, we’ve been awarded £60k of funding from Section 106!! Which is a nice big chunk of the money we need to get part 1 of our refurbishment plan underway! For those who don’t know how it works, the Section 106 Fund is money which has been sought from housing developers who have built new homes in the area. The money is then allocated in order to maintain or improve community amenities which may experience increased pressure by the addition of the homes.
We have also now submitted our application for £166,000 of funding from EPIP (East Peak Innovation Partnership) which, if successful, will mean we have all the funding required to complete the layout and structural work of phase 1 of our development plan.
The funds are made up as follows;
- £25k Blackstone Edge Community Wind Farm for energy efficiency improvements (secured)
- £60k from Section 106 Fund from BMBC (secured)
- £3k of our own funds (drawn from Leisure Centre Income and Fundraising)
- £166K from EPIP (if successful)
We recently put the proposed works out to tender, with quotes coming back more expensive than we had anticipated. As such, we have had to remove certain aspects of the plan from this part of the project. We will now have to fund raise separately in a later project for; insulation, decoration, flooring, new toilets etc
SO we are STILL desperately fundraising, and ever in need of your support! Can you help? Could your business invest in the local community? Could you do a sponsored ‘something’ for us? Could you help us complete funding applications? Let us know…
You can donate to our ‘wonderful’ page HERE, or by contacting the centre directly.
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