Therfield, Royston and Kelshall Sports Association has been awarded £50,000 in funding, which is set to go towards replacing its pavilion with a more sustainable structure.

Following a meeting of North Herts Council’s Community Facilities Capital Grants Panel, £96,000 was granted in capital funding to three groups in the district.

TRAKSA, which runs the recreation ground in Therfield on behalf of Royston Cricket Club and Therfield and Kelshall Sports Association, was awarded the sum in principle in March 2019.

However, the pandemic brought delays to the project and meant that they didn’t use the money within the 12-month timeframe so they had to effectively re-apply.

The 70-year-old pavilion is home to cricket and football clubs as well as Royston Runners and Parkfit, and is used by several other outdoor activity classes and by Therfield First School.

Around 1,200 people currently use the pavilion but it is thought the new energy-efficient building providing all new changing, toilet and shower facilities, and separate areas for match officials, will be used by an additional 2,000 people.

The overall project cost to replace the current pavilion has reduced from £156,000 to £75,000 and is pending planning permission.

Nigel Reader, deputy chairman, said: “We are delighted to be awarded this grant by North Herts Council. It will allow us to develop a new pavilion for the use of Royston Cricket Club, and Therfield and Kelshall Vets Football and Cricket Clubs and for use by the wider community.

"The pavilion at Therfield has been in use for around 60 years, but no longer meets today's requirements. The new pavilion will provide increased changing facilities including for officials, separate changing rooms and showers as well as additional accessible toilet facilities.”

Councillor Judi Billing, executive member for community engagement, said: “It’s wonderful that we are able to support these community facilities to provide a wealth of services to enhance the lives of our residents."

For more information on our capital grants, go to new.north-herts.gov.uk/community-facilities-capital-projects-fund.