SHEVINGTON SHARKS FACILITIES UPDATE

This is a brief update on where we are up to on obtaining facilities for the club.

We are the main partner with Shevington High School in developing the existing facilities that they have at the High School. The school are developing their facilities as part of the Extended Schools Programme, which is basically improving and letting the community use the facilities during and outside of school hours i.e. nights and weekends. Also on the Project Committee are Shevington Parish Council, Shevington Community Action Group, Wigan MBC [Township Forum, Chief Funding Officer, Chief land/fields Officer] and the School Governors.

We are looking at a new Shevington Sport and Community Club to be built on the school, separate from any existing buildings. The club would be licensed and would contain changing, bar, kitchen, community-meeting rooms etc. We have no planning permission at this stage, but the Local Education Authority and Wigan MBC are aware of our plans and they do not have a problem, so long as we meet certain criteria. All the plans ideas we have are very community based, and we see this as the way forward for the project.

As well as the new Sport and Community Club, we would be looking at completely re draining all the pitches and putting in a 3rd generation floodlit All Weather pitch.

You can see this is a massive project, and we are still at the early stages, although I have been attending meetings for over 12 months to reach this point. A lot of work has gone into the project already, but there is, hopefully, a lot of work in front of us.

For such a massive project we will need to get major partners on board, and with this in mind I will shortly be attending a joint meeting with the Football Association and the Rugby Football League. I will be going along with the School and Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust.

It is vital we can get some major funders involved, and we will also need to put some of our own money towards the project. On the project committee we also have the Chief Funding Officer for Wigan MBC, and she will also be helping with the project.

The project is evolving weekly at the moment, and there is such a lot happening, but I must stress nothing has been agreed at the moment, we are just laying all the foundations, which is necessary work.

I will keep everyone updated on the project.

Thank you,

Steve Dillon

Chairman Shevington Sharks