DEWSBURY Rangers are celebrating a great victory – off the field.
The Huddersfield RCD Junior League side have completed a stunning £½m fundraising project to build a new clubhouse and changing rooms.
The club have been waiting seven years but, their ambitious plans for the future of football in Dewsbury received a massive boost when the Football Foundation handed over a cheque for £183,229.
The money is the last part of the £500,000 required to build the new clubhouse and changing facility and the club is now hoping building work will start later this year.
The club, which fields several teams in the Huddersfield RCD Junior League, has already secured additional funding of £150,000 from The FA, as part of their capital allocation in the Whole Sport Plan agreed with Sport England.
They have also got £100,000 from Harron Homes, £68,000 from the Dewsbury Area Planning Committee and £15,000 from club fundraising.
All the grants will go towards developing a state-of-the-art clubhouse on Wakefield Road which, when finished, will allow Dewsbury Rangers to provide six changing rooms, changing facilities for officials, a first aid room and a cafe area to serve the hundreds of playing members and their families.
Club officials and players were presented with the cheque by Dewsbury MP Simon Reevell and Clr Paul Kane.
Club secretary Graham Burton said: “This project has taken many years to come to fruition and it wouldn’t have been possible without assistance from the Football Foundation, Clr Paul Kane and all the time and effort spent by many people at the club.
“It will be a fantastic facility for all our members which, alongside the 3G winter training facility at St John Fishers, gives our players some of the best football facilities in this area.”
Paul Thorogood, chief executive of the Football Foundation, said: “This funding is excellent news for the Dewsbury area.
“Dewsbury Rangers and the West Riding County FA deserve credit for their hard work in making this happen.
“This new project in Dewsbury is but one example of thousands across the country that the Football Foundation is supporting with money provided by our funding partners – the Premier League, The FA and the Government. In Yorkshire alone we have supported 735 projects worth £84.3m.”
Dewsbury Rangers are based in Earlsheaton and provides football coaching for children of all ages.
Mr Burton said it had looked at times as though the clubhouse might never be built.
“You just have to keep going and hoping that it will happen. Now that we have got to this stage we are very pleased,” he added.
See Junior Soccer Pages 32-35
