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JANUARY 2008 UPDATE
Rowing and canoeing will be permanently housed in a
new facility in Whitlingham Country Park. The centre provides high
quality on and off water training facilities accessible to all
standards, abilities and ages. There is safe and easy access to the
River Yare for all users. The facility is a regional centre of
excellence for rowing and canoeing, running annual events, hosting
training camps and producing athletes at international and national
standard. The centre will be recognised for consistently producing
winners at local, regional and national levels.
Planning Application. The
final drawings are expected from the architect w/c 14 January and we
hope to resubmit the planning application w/c 21 January. We will
still have to go through the full process but, assuming that there are
no objections, then our application should be dealt with under
delegated powers. If this is the case, we should know the outcome by
the end of March.
Funding.
We have engaged an organisation called
Plan4Sport who are experts in the field of funding sources. They are
carrying out a review of options as the various opportunities change
regularly! Planning consent is key but there is a range of local and
national funds which we will pursue. We gave a formal update to Nick
Boulter from Sport England East on 8 January. He was positive about
the proposals but he also explained that Sport England (SE) is going
through considerable change itself and some of the funding avenues may
also change. It is likely that current funds may close in a few months
time. We will therefore be submitting the Stage 1 application to SE by
31 January; this gives us an indication of SE’s appetite to fund the
project. To appeal to SE, we need to demonstrate that the project is
in line with their objectives of increasing participation in sport at
all levels. We think we have a strong case but it will be judged on
its merits. In addition, we have submitted a proposal to the Norwich
Union Community Sports Fund; we will know where we stand on this later
in January.
However, most importantly, we need to
ramp up fund raising both within the Clubs and with our commercial or
other contacts. Now that both NRC and NCC have achieved Community
Amateur Sports Club status, any donations to the Clubs can be Gift
Aided thereby benefiting from a tax rebate. Please take the
opportunity to add a donation to your annual subscriptions when they
are requested; this really will make a difference. In addition, there
are now fundraising links on both the NRC and NCC websites; please use
them for your on-line shopping and the clubs will receive a premium
for every purchase.
If any members have contacts who may be
interested in investing in the project, please let one of the project
team have the details.
Communications.
We are looking for someone with PR, communications or marketing
expertise to join the project team. If you can give some time, please
contact Max Heron.
Next Update.
We will issue the next update in February.
Project Team.
The project team comprises:
Team leader – Max Heron
(01603-842888 or email - heronm@norwich-union.co.uk)
Site acquisition – John Hadcroft
Construction – Graham Brown
Finance – Alex Fitzgerald and
Andrew Hicks
Funding – Plan4Sport (Louise
Tideswell)
Sport development plan – Ian
Hayward
Communications – Vacant; a
volunteer is required!
If you have any questions, please
contact one of the project team.
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