£1.5 million Community Hub Project under way at Inverness
Work is well underway to regenerate a disused playing field in the heart of Inverness to provide a wide range of community groups with a major grassed area for football and athletics.
Behind the project at the Inverness Royal Academy Playing Fields are Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s Community Development Trust, who have secured a 25-year lease from The Highland Council and attracted funding of more than £1,500,000 for the creation of a Community Hub.
In a first phase of work, costing £230,000, the Trust has commissioned consultants, Greentech, to re-seed and drain the 10-acre facility, bringing it back into life after years of under-use due to poor drainage and consequent flooding.
In a second phase costing £1,280,000, IBI Joinery have been awarded a 20-week construction contract to build changing rooms, a classroom and offices, which will be the new home of the 16-strong ICT Community Development Team.
Work on both phases of work are underway and It is hoped that the facilities will be available for use by the end of this year. When operational, the Trust intend to engage another five staff, create volunteering opportunities for 50 folk and generate income of £220,000 per year from the hire of the facilities.
Among those groups who will be using the Hub will be the Trust’s Walking Footballers and Para Footballers along with young boys and girls who attend the Trust’s holiday programmes and the SFA/McDonald’s Saturday soccer festivals. Pupils of Inverness Royal Academy will have access to the facility for school sports activities.
Inverness Athletic and the ICT Women’s team are earmarked to play their home games on the proposed new Hub show pitch.
The Trust, which is a not-for-profit charity, has attracted funding from the Scottish Football Association; Highlands and Islands Enterprise, The Highland Council, SportScotland, the Scottish Football Partnership Fund, the James Anderson Trust, the Garfield Weston Foundation, McDonalds in the Community Foundation and the Bank of Scotland.
Craig Masterton, ICT Community Development Manager, said:
“We are absolutely delighted that we have reached our funding target to proceed with the first two phases of the Hub project and our warmest thanks are extended to the many funders of our exciting project.
"The Hub will be the new home of the Community Development Team and we are hoping to have the facility up and running by the end of this year, providing our community with a much-needed grassed area for activity.”
Graeme Sutherland, North Regional Manager for the SFA, said:
“We are delighted to be able to support the ICTCDT Community Hub project. Our investment in both phase 1 and phase 2 of this regeneration initiative shows our continued commitment to grassroots sport and local communities. ICTCDT continue to develop and deliver a creative and impactful offering to communities across Inverness, and we are confident that the Community Hub initiative will further strengthen this. Having been a key stakeholder from the inception of this project, we look forward to seeing this facility in place and supporting a wide range of user groups from across the local community and beyond.”
The project has secured up to £400,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). James Turner, HIE’s head of strengthening communities for the Inner Moray Firth area, said:
“This is a very ambitious project by the Inverness Caledonian Thistle Community Development Trust. It will strengthen and significantly extend the provision of football related physical activity options for people in and around the city, while securing employment and volunteering opportunities. I’m delighted we’ve been able to support the project and look forward to continuing to work with the ICT CDT as the project develops.”
The Highland Council’s Inverness City Leader, Councillor Ian Brown, said:
“I am very pleased that the Council has been able to support the Community Development Trust with its aspiration to provide a community facility which enables a programme of activity for all ages and abilities. It’s fantastic to see the regeneration of the playing field which I’m sure will become a popular asset for the local community.”
The project has received £100,000 of National Lottery funding from sportscotland's Sport Facilities Fund. Forbes Dunlop, Chief Executive of sportscotland, said:
“It is exciting to see the next phase of work starting on the community hub in Inverness. When it opens, the hub will be of huge significance to sport in the area, bringing huge benefits for the people of Inverness and the surrounding communities. Everyone involved in the project has demonstrated a real commitment to ensuring that more people in the area will have an opportunity to become physically active and connected to their local community."
McDonald’s franchisee Iain Fyfe said:
“We’re absolutely delighted to support the funding of this fantastic new local football hub, which will soon become home to our McDonald’s Fun Football Festivals – an initiative we run with the SFA that has gone from strength to strength in both numbers and popularity in recent years. This project reflects our long-standing commitment to grassroots football in the Highlands and our core values of serving the communities in which we operate.”
