August 2009

Cllr David Sanders had organised a meeting with the Peterborough City Council’s property design & maintenance managers.

 

The meeting followed conversations regarding the Council's review of maintenance work required for the existing pavilion building. In short, some £40,000 has been recommended to be included in the 2010-2011 capital improvements budget to refurbish the pavilion to a satisfactory state.

 

While repairing the pavilion would be a good thing, it would not provide us as a club (including Thorney FC) nor the wider community with the facilities that would enable growth and development.

 

The Council officer agreed that the £40,000 identified for repairs could, instead, be contributed to the building of new facilities provided additional funding could be secured.

 

The meeting concluded with the City Council committing to drawing up initial plans and cost estimates for such new clubhouse facility – which may be considered with input from other Thorney-based community groups. The plans and costs are anticipated in September / October.

 

We (including Thorney FC) then met with Cambridgeshire FA’s Football Development Officers and they identified that £20,000 could be confidently secured from the Football Foundation – and that they would work to find additional sources.

 

We believe that it is worthwhile to begin to identify and approach other funding channels at this early stage so as to determine likely opportunities. The PCC and Cambs FA both believe that the community project angle would be best led by TPC as it would have greater appeal to community funding schemes.

From the Club perspective, we have access to a number of trades professionals who could contribute both materials and services – so that the project could be delivered efficiently, by involving the community as part of the development and construction process, and generate enthusiasm within the village that comes from everybody being invited to take part.

 

Next steps are to receive the preliminary plans and costs in the autumn from PCC, for TPC to begin to identify community funding channels and for Thorney Football Clubs to identify trade professionals and companies who would be willing to provide materials at preferential rates.