£1 million football funding for Heywood regeneration plan

Lord Pendry with the £1 Million cheque presented by the Football Foundation

The Football Foundation has presented £1 million towards the sporting aspect of Heywood’s £10.3 million regeneration project.

MP for Heywood and Middleton Jim Dobbin joined the Foundation's President Lord Pendry to celebrate the Council’s success in securing the Foundation’s maximum award possible.

Helping Lord Pendry present the cheque were girls from St Michael’s Church of England School’s Under-11 football team, who will be one of the local teams that benefit from the community’s enhanced sports facilities when the state-of-the-art new site is built.

The £1 million grant will go towards a new Sports, Culture and Leisure Village incorporating a sports hall, 25-metre six-lane swimming pool, fitness suite and dance studio, six dual gender changing rooms, two large officials changing rooms, education/community space, a refreshment area and viewing space, spectator and disability-friendly toilet facilities, kitchen and storage areas.

There will also be dedicated youth space and a youth gym.

The money will also fund enhanced grass pitches, which will be drained, improved and reconfigured to include three full sized pitches, one junior pitch and three Mini Soccer pitches.

The new village in Heywood will be built on the site of the existing facilities, and it is designed to offer not only sport, activity and fitness facilities but access to health, skills and learning, as part of New Heart for Heywood’s wider agenda to regenerate Heywood.

Karen Keohane of Sport England North West said: “We were impressed with the scale of the ambitions of the partners to make a real difference to local people, which is why we’ve awarded our largest ever grant for this project."

Building of the new centre is due to begin in spring 2009 with completion in summer 2010.

Vicki Devonport, Chief Executive of the New Heart for Heywood Partnership said: “It is great news that the Football Foundation has approved this grant, and it is another major hurdle that has been jumped to make the Sports, Culture and Leisure village a reality, and create a lasting legacy from NDC and its partners.

"Once the funding is in place for the project to move ahead, the real challenge begins. We look forward to working with partners to put into place structures to ensure that the programme and services delivered from the centre are shaped by the local community, including young people.”

Speaking after handing over the cash injection to Rochdale Council and its partners, Lord Pendry said: “The facilities that will be developed here will be amongst the best in the country and are set to lead the development of sport in this part of Greater Manchester.

“They are going to be a massive benefit to the area’s youngsters and will really encourage boys and girls to enjoy their football, and other sports and leisure activities and to stay fit and healthy.

“The Football Foundation has now made a real difference to the state of the game within our communities. In Lancashire alone the Foundation has invested £11 million into 366 since 2000 and this is also happening in every town and city across the country. Greater Manchester has also had £11 million of investment since the Foundation started.”