Bryncethin Rugby Club have signed a 35 year lease for the existing sports pavilion and playing field at Bryncethin that sees them being the first sports club in the County of Bridgend to do so. The club are taking over the existing facility, on behalf of the community, under the Council’s Community Asset Transfer scheme and have been working with the Council since the club submitted their initial Expression of Interest in January 2016.
They plan to refurbish and extend the existing building to provide a safe, modern community centre which will have disabled access to all areas and its own dedicated car park close to the building.
Phil Jones, who is the club’s vice chairman and has led the process so far said, “This is very much a community project and we have undertaken extensive community consultation to gauge the support for the development, and to establish exactly what services and events that the local residents would like to see offered at the centre. Results showed that there was 99.6% support for the proposals and all information gathered, along with that from the current users, the nursery group and rugby club, has been taken on board during the design process.
This is a major, and bold, development for the village of Bryncethin and the surrounding area, which has seen hundreds of new homes build in the area with no improvements in community facilities.
Due to the financial restriction imposed on Local Authorities only limited amounts of money have been spent on the maintenance of this, and other facilities in the County, and this is only likely to get worse. The current building is in a very poor state of repair and we see this as a one off opportunity to improve the lives of lots of people whilst bringing a building, that would probably have to close in the not too distant future, back into full use by all the community.
We believe that it’s also fitting that the community take over the management of a building that was actually build by volunteer labour from the club, and community, in 1952.
The building, which will have a number of separate lettable rooms, will be available to hire, along with the playing area where required, to a wide range of organisations and groups and there has already been a lot of interest, along with many letters of support.
A Management committee has been created, comprising members of the community along with representatives from the current users.
Although we have kept things fairly low key so far, we have put in a huge amount of work to date, including carrying out the consultation process, obtaining Planning Permission and applying for funding for the work. Now that the lease is finally in place, we can really progress matters and get on with the provision of a facility that the community deserves and, we are confident, a facility that will be well supported and used”.
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