Pubs, clubs and sports centres given share of £33m

MORE than 80 pubs, clubs and sport centres are set to benefit from a £33.5m investment in keeping community spaces open.

The package, announced by the UK Government yesterday, will see lifelines extended to facilities across the UK – including six projects in Wales – as part of ministers’ “levelling up” programme.

Levelling up minister Jacob Young described the money as “a major rescue package” that will “stop these great establishments closing or being lost forever”.

He said: “We know how much these vital community assets mean to people across the country. They are an important lifeline for people young and old, and they’re the beating heart of our towns, cities and villages.”

Among the venues benefiting from the money, which forms the third round of the Government’s £150m Community Ownership Fund, are 33 community centres, 19 sports facilities, nine pubs, five community shops and three theatres.

These include the music venue Le

Pub in Newport, which will receive £250,000.

The other projects to benefit from funding in Wales were:

Talgarth Youth and Community Centre retrofit, Powys (£1.43m);

Clynfyw Community Farm for all, Pembrokeshire (£298,000);

Rhyl FC CIC community ownership (£378,000);

Capel Penuel/Ryder Academi CIC (£345,000); and

The Owain Glyndwr Community Hotel, Corwen (£452,000).

A spokesperson for the Owain hub

Glyndwr Community Hotel, posting on Facebook, said the money will cover the community purchase and initial refurbishment of the building, and added: “Our patience and hard work has been rewarded... This is a pivotal day for Corwen and the Save the OG campaign team are ecstatic.”

Elsewhere in the UK, Edinburgh Filmhouse, which closed in 2022, will receive £1.5m to help it reopen, and the Shrewsbury Arms pub in Kingstone, Staffordshire, which has been awarded £178,000 to replace its roof.

Announcing the latest round of funding, Mr Young visited Cooke’s Studios, an arts centre in Barrow-inFurness that has been awarded £910,000.

There will be one further round of funding as part of the Community Ownership Fund, which will be announced later this year.

The fourth round will involve two bidding windows, one opening tomorrow and the other in late May.

In total, £103m of the Community Ownership Fund has been announced so far.