After eight years of fundraising, the club is now hoping that work will start in May, and should take between six months and a year to complete.
‘We started off fundraising a few years before lockdown so it’s been a long venture with lots of ups and downs along the way, some real disappointments and then some real highs,’ said boxing development officer Mandy Hobart.
‘We finally reached our target just a few months ago and we’ve got a builder now involved as well, so we’re working out where we might be able to make some savings or whether we just run with the plans. CCD Design has worked on the plan, so we’re at planning stage, we need to go to Building Control next and start the process of getting the build approved.’
The current plans are the third set the club has had drawn up as costs have escalated since the pandemic. Previous plans included a complete demolition and rebuild, and another was to add a mezzanine floor, but it would have cost the club much more than the £1m. quoted for its current plans.
Members and friends of the club were given the fundraising update and shown its plans at an event at La Fontaine Inn last night.
‘We never thought we’d get here, it was such a huge amount for a little club like us to raise,’ said Mrs Hobart.
‘We’ve been so lucky that the community has come together, we’ve been very lucky with some funding that we’ve received and we’ve just not given up. We’ve just kept banging on doors because we know that this could offer such a great place for the community to come to.’
The new building will be beneficial to boxers at all levels and the new equipment will help its better boxers, all the way to its Commonwealth Games hopefuls, to take the next step in the sport.
‘It will just create a really safe, nice environment for our boxers to train,’ said Mrs Hobart.
‘The club is now used not only by the amateur boxers, but we also run sessions here for the Parkinson’s group, so we’ll also have a safe environment for them to come into.
‘We’ll have a fold-away ring so they will be able to get into the ring so they’ll really feel part of the boxing environment, and we also run it for the over 65s.
‘We also run sessions for our SEND group and welfare referrals, school referrals – there’s so much now we do within the community, so it would just be a great place for the community to come and learn boxing, learn to keep fit, and help with confidence, self-belief and everything that boxing brings, but in a really pleasant, nice space.
‘With the new equipment that we will be getting as well and just the space it provides, it will help our Commonwealth Games boxers to have a better environment to train in. The equipment will be better, the space will be better, we won’t have dampness in here in the winter time.
‘It’s going to be a much better environment for our guys to train and get them to the Commonwealth Games again.’
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