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Council's donation to Seaton Scouts gets project over finishing line

Jonathan Irving

Jonathan Irving

Posted on 07 January 2021

A major project to deliver a new modern, fit-for-purpose community facility in Seaton is now over the finishing line thanks to a grant from Allerdale Borough Council.

The council has awarded Seaton Scout Group £8,750 to support their work in creating a new scout and community building. The grant has allowed the group to pay for the final pieces of work on the site, including the groundworks and entrance.

Overall, the cost of the project has been around £200,000 with the group receiving several grants as well community contributions and doing their own fundraising.

The new building has a 105sq m hall, fully accessible toilets and disabled facilities along with a kitchen and garage area for use as an ‘indoor/outdoor space’ in poor weather. The building will complement the existing village hall and will form a hub of facilities on Seaton’s Welfare Fields.

Brian Hemming, grants and project manager for the scout group, said:

“This new building is a major achievement for us as a group and the Seaton community in general. It has taken well over 10 years to get to this point and we will now have a building and grounds that we can all be proud of.

“We have been successful because of the support of many people. However, projects such as these are always on a knife edge with respect to budgets, income and volunteer time. The hardest part is getting over the finish line and in this case, I thought that we may have been unable to do this as our funding avenues were slowly being closed off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We wish to express our sincere thanks to the council for the grant that has taken us over the finish line.”

Cllr Mike Johnson, Deputy Leader of the council, said:

 “We were delighted to be able to offer this support the scout group to help them get this fantastic project over the line. Groups and facilities like this are of vital importance to our communities and as a council we’ll do what we can to support them.”

Seaton scouts now hope to have a handover of their new facility from main contractor Stobbarts Ltd early this year.