Joy as county gets £500k from London 2012 pot

SPORTS organisations across Oxfordshire are celebrating a cash injection totalling nearly £500,000.

The funding is part of the £135m Places People Play Olympic legacy programme, and each facility getting new money will carry the London 2012 Inspire mark to celebrate the link with the Games.

Members of Grove Rugby Football Club are among those celebrating last week’s grants round.

The club is run by volunteers, has more than 500 members from under-sevens to senior citizens, and caters for more than 200 boys and girls in the mini and junior sections.

The £32,951 grant will be used to re-lay slabs around the clubhouse in Cane Lane, replace the doors, guttering and windows, check the roof, and fit showers with a new water supply.

Club chairman Chris McCarthy said: “We are delighted with this award in our 40th anniversary year.

“This will now fund much-needed refurbishment work on our building and help to take us through the next 40 years and beyond.

“As a club, we try to support the community where we can, including the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

“So this award is not just for the club but for the whole community.”

Wantage MP Ed Vaizey said: “Grove Rugby Club is at the heart of the community and does a huge amount. This money will make a huge difference to its facilities.”

Sport England’s chairman Richard Lewis said: “This National Lottery investment will create a lasting sporting legacy for the Wantage and Grove area. For hundreds of clubs, and tens of thousands of people, 2012 will be the year their sporting facilities got better.”

As reported in the Oxford Mail this week, a £400,000 plan for an artificial football pitch next to Didcot’s Willowbrook Leisure Centre on the Ladygrove estate has been awarded a £150,000 Sport England grant.

And in Abingdon, the rowing club in Wilsham Road has got £50,000 to improve its gym facilities.

GRANT WINNERS

• Abingdon Rowing Club – £50,000 for gym improvements
• The Bartons’ Victory War Memorial Hall Fund – £39,000 to upgrade tennis courts
• Chadlington Sports Club – £25,183 for changing room improvements
• Freeland Parish Council – £50,000 for community recreation facility
• Chinnor Rugby Football Club – £38,700 for replacing showers and boiler
• Oxford Wheels Project – £50,000 for new skate park in Meadow Lane, East Oxford
• Letcombe Regis Recreation Ground and Village Hall Trust – £50,000 for pavilion improvements
• Grove RUFC – £32,951 for clubhouse improvements.
• South Oxfordshire District Council – £150,000 for artificial pitch in Didcot.

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