Community ‘Club Hub’ facility receives Premier League & FA Facilities Funding

Swindon Town Football in the Community Trust in partnership with Swindon Borough Council has been awarded £1,000,000 of funding from the Premier League & FA Facilities Fund to support the creation of a new state of the art Community ‘Club Hub’ facility on the County Ground recreational ground.

The plan is to create a wonderful new facility that will enable Swindon Harriers Athletics Club and the Community Trust to further expand and enhance the projects and programmes that are enjoyed by so many local participants. The Community Trust delivers to a wide range of Swindon participants from the age of 2 to 80 years. These sessions are not just solely focussed about football training, but also tackle issues relating to Health, Social Inclusion, Education and Sports Participation. This new facility in central Swindon will allow existing and new participants the opportunity to access these projects and programmes to enhance and benefit people’s health and well being.

The delivery plan for the proposed project will also benefit local schools and grass root clubs that will utilise the facilities to support their training, matches and physical education.

The Club Hub facility received a unanimous planning decision at the March planning committee and this confirmation of funding now means that the finance is in place to move forward with the building of the £2.2 million pound project.

Swindon Town Football in the Community Trust has worked with the Football Foundation, Swindon Borough Council and Wiltshire FA to secure a grant of £1,000,000 from the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund towards the project.

Head of Trust, Jon Holloway, said: “We are delighted that we have secured funding from the Premier League & FA Facilities Fund to build this new community facility.

It is great to know that the Premier League and the FA have embraced our vision to create an inspirational facility in the heart of Swindon and this fantastic news is another major milestone towards making our dream a reality.

We can now very much look forward to work commencing onsite within the next few months and the opening of this facility in the early months of 2019.”

Swindon Borough Council Councillor Gary Sumner, Swindon Borough Council's Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, said: "This funding announcement is fantastic news and is just reward for the hard work put in by Jon Holloway and the Trust team as well as council officers. It means we can now look forward to creating a state-of-the-art facility we can all be proud of.

"Our landscape, leisure and planning teams have worked hard to engage the public so we can deliver an outstanding scheme with the Trust, which will benefit the whole community for many years to come."

Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “Since 2000, the Football Foundation has awarded 166 grants worth £6m across Wiltshire towards grassroots sports projects worth £22.8m and it is great to hear that Swindon Town Football in the Community Trust will be the latest beneficiary.

“Funding from the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund, delivered by the Foundation, will support the club in developing a brand new facility for the local community. Made possible by investment from the Premier League, The FA and the Government, via Sport England, the Fund is supporting the grassroots game by improving access to high-quality football facilities across the country.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund is funded by the Premier League, The FA, and the Government, via Sport England. It is delivered by the Football Foundation, the country’s

largest sports charity. Since it was launched in 2000, the Foundation has awarded 18,000 grants worth more than £638m towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of £841m – totalling almost £1.5bn of investment into the grassroots game.

By providing more high-quality facilities, coupled with coaching at the appropriate age group, the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund aims to improve the experience for regular players as well as attracting new players to the game. Many of the new state-of-the-art facilities will serve to strengthen the connection between professional football clubs and their local communities, particularly in the most deprived areas of the country, through the professional clubs’ community trusts’ outreach work.