Wallasey Yacht Club awarded £73,000 of funding from Sport England

Wallasey Yacht Club is among 148 local sports projects to secure a share of £10 million of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Inspired Facilities fund. Since 2011, Inspired Facilities has been helping breathe new life into tired community sports facilities and converting existing buildings into venues suitable for grassroots sport. Wallasey Yacht Club will receive £73,012 of National Lottery funding to enlarge and upgrade its facilities at Hope Street, New Brighton. This will enable it to offer the chance to a greater range of people to experience the sport of sailing on the lake and river at New Brighton. The improvements include increasing boat storage on recently acquired land adjacent to the club, upgrading existing workshops and changing facilities and the addition of a disabled changing room. This is the first of two planned phases for the club to improve facilities, with an emphasis on accessibility. Sport England Property Director, Charles Johnston, said: “The Inspired Facilities Fund has had a huge impact on grassroots sport across the country. Since 2011, we’ve invested £94 million into more than 1,800 projects to improve and refurbish sports clubs and transform non-sporting venues into vibrant community sports clubs. “It’s great to see Wallasey Yacht Club join the long list of successful clubs to benefit from this fund.” Club President, Peter Shillinglaw, said: “We are delighted to have secured this investment, which means we can upgrade the quality of our premises to match our planned programme of attracting new members, young and old by offering the training and experience required to appreciate the sport.” Local MP, Angela Eagle, said: “The club has a proud history stretching back to 1903, and has contributed much to the local community during my time as an MP. This grant will now enable the club to continue to flourish, by allowing extra storage for their expanding membership fleet, especially boats for the junior section and to improve facilities for disabled members.” Many more communities are set to benefit from the hugely popular fund with the latest round of the Inspired Facilities now open. Community and voluntary organisations, councils and schools can bid for a share of £20 million to help upgrade facilities that can be unattractive, expensive to run and difficult to maintain, and to convert existing non-sporting buildings into venues that are suitable for grassroots sport. To find out more and bid, visit www.sportengland.org/inspiredfacilities .