Since vandals set fire to their much loved Cricket Pavilion in Privett Park in May 2005, Members of Gosport Cricket Club have had nowhere to store equipment, hold meetings and extend hospitality to their opposing teams.
But hopefully that will all soon be a thing of the past as last night, Members of the Community & Environment Board at Gosport Borough Council, agreed to accept a tender to provide a new replacement Pavilion for the Club.
Original plans were to provide a two storey building that would serve the needs of all the cricket and football teams with pitches within the park.
However, after a disappointing period of trying to raise funding for the project, and a change of Committee in December 2006, the Cricket Club decided that they would sooner pursue a single story modular building that would satisfy just their requirements. As well as being much cheaper it would also be much quicker to construct.
The Community & Environment Board were last night delighted to accept the tender and recommend the new pavilion which, subject to planning approval, should soon be up and running, enabling the club to once again host sporting events in the Borough and reduce the risk of losing further members and revenue.
“We have to carry out some groundworks before the new pavilion can be provided on the site, and of course that is only once planning permission has been approved,” said Councillor Dennis Wright, Chairman of the Community & Environment Board. “But it is great that, despite all the delays, work should soon commence to provide the club with a home again and that we will be able to do all of this within the confines of the Council’s original proposed £389,000 budget for the project.”
It is hoped that the plans for the new build will go before the Regulatory Board on 22 May 2007.
