Yahoo News Glenkens community set to give sports pitch new lease of life
A Glenkens community has been given the go ahead to take ownership of a “derelict” sports pitch.
And Dalry Community Properties Trust now intends to refurbish the town’s multi-use games area (MUGA), which hasn’t been used for the best part of a decade.
The trust is set to take over the site for the token fee of £1 after members of the council’s finance, procurement and transformation committee backed the deal – the last major hurdle the trust had to overcome.
The trust’s chair, Michele Owen, said: “It’s very exciting.
“It’s now just getting the funding to actually upgrade it.
“I think the cost is between £40,000 and £60,000, depending if we need to look at access and changing rooms. The upgrade of the surface is £30,000 to £40,000.
“The chief executive, Dawn Roberts, came for a visit last week to Dalry and New Galloway so we got to show her the MUGA.
“Scott McMeekan, the ward officer, has been amazing and has helped us all the way through it.”
As well as upgrading the surface, other planned work includes automating as much of the running of the site as possible – from turning on the lights to making bookings.
A report for last week’s meeting valued the MUGA – which hasn’t been used since around 2015 – at around £100,000 but it’s “derelict condition” meant it is only worth around half that.
It is hoped the funding could be secured and work carried out in time for the facility to be back in use this time next year.
The deal will allow Dalry School to continue to use the facility and maintain it during term time.
A variety of sports groups, including tennis and football, plan to use the facility, with GCAT hoping to use it for their ebike training.
And it is also set to be used for basketball, which is particularly popular with kids in the Glenkens.
Michele added: “We can set up leagues between Castle Douglas and maybe Dalmellington because we’ll be in the middle.
“We’re hoping that it will be used as much as possible – it’s rural so it won’t be as busy as the Dumfries one but it would be lovely for it to be used every day throughout the year as it has the floodlights.
“We want to join up with other sports to make it a bit of a collaboration.
“Active Schools could potentially come to the MUGA and you could really kick a ball – you can’t kick anything around Dalry too much as it would end up on the road!
“We’re hoping we’ll make enough from the businesses and everyone else that we can give all children, not just in school time, free access and possibly some other groups as well.”
The Dalry deal was one of four community asset transfers approved at the finance, procurement and transformation committee meeting.
“These are just the sort of initiatives the council wishes to support and encourage, and the fact that this brings the number of community asset transfers to more than 60 over the past seven years, is a testament to the hard work and innovation of people living and working in Dumfries and Galloway.”
