Council donate £10k for recreation ground project

Money will come from £162k Community Fund generated after sale of former youth club

A MAJOR project to update a village recreation ground has been given a financial boost by a parish council.

Proposals have been put forward to refurbish Kingsley Recreation Ground. The project is being spearheaded by residents Mandy Corby, Lucy Hughes and Louise Wainwright.

The total cost of the project is set to be around £45,000.

They have applied to the Kingsley Community Fund for a grant and are also applying to the “Awards for All” lottery for a grant.

The Kingsley Community Fund is the money raised from the sale of the former Kingsley Youth Club and ground – which was closed down a few years ago.

It was sold in 2017 and after legal costs, the total left for distribution was £162,000.

This year the fund awarded a grant of £23,716.58 to purchase additional play equipment for Kingsley Holt recreation ground.

Now to start the funding off for the Kingsley village project, Kingsley Parish Council have agreed to donated £10,000 to the scheme when they met last week.

Speaking at the monthly parish council meeting, chairman of the authority Ken Unwin, said: “Predictive figures are that we are likely to have £27,000 in the burial account and £23,000 in the general account.

“Are we now saying that we could give £10,000 to the Kingsley recreation ground project?”

Councillor David Fowler said: “I propose that we take £10,000 out of the general fund and donate it to the Kingsley project.”

Councillor John Steele said: “We can still make an approach to the National Lottery, but we have significant money in our accounts. We should spend £10,000 out of the general fund for the recreation project.”

Members agreed that £10,000 should be donated to the project from the parish council’s general account.

A decision on if the project is to be awarded a grant from the Kingsley Community Fund is expected later in the year.