Newsroom Archive

The council approved a loan of £50,000 for Telford and Wrekin Hockey Club over a 25 year period to meet their shortfall in funding. The money will go towards the replacement of their dedicated hockey pitch at St Georges Recreational Ground.

Telford and Wrekin Hockey Club secured £68,811 of their own funding and gained a National Hockey Foundation grant of £50,000. They also secured a number of loans in principle to cover the shortfall of funding with the council being the preferred option.

The initiative contributes to a number of the council’s priorities, including its vision to protect, care and invest to create a better borough; ensuring that there are increasing opportunities for local people to take part in sporting activities in the borough.

The new improved hockey facilities will provide more potential for the development of the sport for children, young people, and adults in the borough – as well as helping to improve people’s health by encouraging more people to take part in the sport.

As a result of the new and improved facilities at St Georges, Telford and Wrekin Hockey Club have surrendered their leasehold in the Town Park. This means Telford Hornets Rugby club can become leaseholders of the whole facility with growing opportunities for rugby locally.

Councillor Eileen Callear, Telford & Wrekin’s Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Visitor Economy said: “This is a very exciting project which would help ensure that all children, young people and adults in the community have the opportunity to take part in a variety of different healthy sporting activity across our borough.

“We are extremely keen to support Telford Hockey Club to bridge this funding gap which will ultimately ensure more people can access these sports facilities in the future.”

Gwynne Goodfield, Telford and Wrekin Hockey Club said: “The existing pitch was in a poor state but with the support of Telford and Wrekin Council we now have one of the best hockey facilities in Shropshire. This provides us the opportunity to expand our programme of coaching which currently includes 230 junior and adults and 150 children between the ages of 5 and 18.

“We have already started to run "Back 2 Hockey" and "Walking Hockey" sessions for adults who may have played at school and stopped or never picked up a stick before and want to give the sport a go. In the coming months we'll be the only club in Shropshire and a handful in the whole of the UK to offer disability hockey.

“As well as these benefits at an elite level it will enable our teams to compete at a national level.  Without the support of Telford and Wrekin Council this would not have been possible.”

John Barclay, Telford Hornets Rugby Club Chair commented: “We are delighted at this new opportunity for our club to take on the additional facilities at our current site. Thank you to Telford & Wrekin Council for helping us secure this opportunity which will mean we have opportunities to grow in the future.”

This and other reports that went to cabinet of 23 September 2021 are available here.