£250,000 windfall pays for airhall (From Herald Series)

£250,000 windfall pays for airhall

3:20pm Friday 12th September 2008

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Sports enthusiasts in Wantage are celebrating a £250,000 windfall to pay for a sports facility.

King Alfred's Community and Sports College is to be handed £250,000 by the Government to fund its sports dome. The £200,000 polythene airhall was built last year over outdoor tennis courts on the school's west site in Challow Road.

It is one of 42 sports colleges in the country — and the only one in Oxfordshire — to share a slice of £10m to improve sports facilities.

Simon Spiers, the college's director of sport, said: "The school is delighted to receive the grant. It means the Government will be paying for it and not school funds. The money will cover all the costs of the dome and it will allow us to replace the floor with a new sound-absorbing surface."

He added: "The dome has transformed our physical education curriculum. It has allowed us to include things like table tennis, badminton and trampolining, and it has raised participation and achievement rates because the children are doing things they really want to do. Young people in the Wantage and Grove area don't have enough indoor facilities since St Mary's School closed down and the leisure centre is oversubscribed."

The school is applying for planning permission to extend the dome's opening hours so it can be used by both the school and the community in the evenings and at weekends.

Mr Spiers said: "This will allow the community to play sport in a quality indoor facility which is warm and dry."

The facility came under the spotlight in May following complaints from neighbours in Warmans Close and Lydsee Gate over noise and the fact it failed to comply with some aspects of the original planning permission.

However, Mr Spiers said: "The hours after school will be restricted to between 6pm and 8pm for community use, and we will also restrict the types of sport. For example, football is too noisy for community use, so it will be used for things like badminton and trampolining."

Peter Preston, 61, of Warmans Close, said: "If they do the floor and the other things they've suggested, I'm hoping it will make our life a bit more bearable and we might be able to sleep at night.

"I support what they're trying to do, as long as they control the noise."

The planning application will be considered by Vale of White Horse District Council and a decision is expected in November.

 In January, the Government announced it had earmarked a total of £30m to make sure sports pitches could be used in the evening and throughout the winter.

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