Group pitches in with an Ell of a cash boost
THE long-standing dream of a Northumberland village’s junior football club to have its own home ground has moved a step closer after a £10,000 grant from a regional employer allowed its future pitches to be made ready for development.
Ellington Juniors has more than 130 members playing for 15 different age-group teams, from under sixes to under-21s.
However, it has never had its own pitches in the village - meaning all its matches have to be played in Lynemouth, Linton and Ashington.
The club was gifted nine acres of land by Alcan when its Lynemouth smelting plant closed on which to build new pitches and a new clubhouse with changing facilities - on condition it had to get the work done within three years.
Planning permission has been granted for two full-size pitches, a junior pitch, a 3G pitch and the clubhouse.
Funding has been lined up from the Football Association, the Football Foundation and other bodies to help meet the estimated £700,000 cost of the project.
However, before this money can be released, Ellington needed to cover the cost of sectioning off the future playing surface before preparation work could begin.
A £10,000 donation made by the Banks Group from its Banks Community Fund has now enabled the club to call in a local contractor to fence off the whole of the future playing area to protect it from unauthorised users.
Work on preparing the new pitches is scheduled to start soon, with seeding to follow later in the autumn.
Construction of the new clubhouse is expected to begin early next year with a view to the whole complex being ready for use at the start of the 2018/19 season.
Sarah Gair, fundraising officer at Ellington Juniors, said: “This is the biggest thing to happen in the village for ages and everyone is getting behind what the club is doing.
“Not having our own ‘home’ ground means extra time and effort is always needed from parents to get their children to and from games and training sessions, not to mention the significant cost of hiring out pitches all the time.
“We are desperate to get everything in place as soon as we can.
“We had reached a crucial stage with the project as we would not have been able to start work on preparing the pitches until the ground was safe and secure.
“The Banks Group’s support has enabled us to get the site fully secured in time to start preparations on the pitch and we are excited to see work kicking off at the ground later in the year.”
The Fund provides grants for community groups in the vicinity of Banks Group projects.
Anyone interested in applying for funding should contact James Eaglesham on 0191 378 6342.