Gazette Sport

Ilkley ready for the dawn of a new era

9:38am Thursday 2nd September 2010

Ilkley Rugby Club’s dream is about to come true. The vision of a gleaming new clubhouse and changing facility will soon become reality.

It’s all a far cry from recent times when it was necessary to don wellies after parking your car.

The ground-maintenance equipment was a museum piece garaged in a leaky container, and the back pitch was a quagmire.

Each year the club has spent upwards of £100,000, raised mainly from their own efforts with grants from the RFU, to improve those facilities.

Now it is time for the old clubhouse, changing rooms and grandstand, built by the good burghers of the town in the early 1920s, to be replaced.

They have served the cub proud and seen generation after generation of rugby players pass through their doors, but they are no longer fit for the purpose in the 21st century.

A long and exhausting road has been travelled by a small group of club officials since the day, four years ago, when the committee gave their blessing to proceed with the project.

A space-age revolutionary design was app-roved and received planning permission but this was eventually rejected on grounds of cost.

Then a new design was conceived by architects Design Studios North, following which a new planning consent was granted for a state-of- the-art facility incorporating features to complement the beautiful Dales scenery in which Ilkley’s Stacks Field ground is set.

Of course, all these initial processes require considerable finance, and the single-minded determination of the development group had to risk tens of thousands of pounds to get the pro-ject to a stage where outside funding could be sought. This process alone called for considerable nerve and tenacity.

The club itself pledged to raise in the region of £850,000 in order that other outside funders could justify their input. Chairman Richard Scargill nailed his flag firmly to the mast and has made it a personal mission to achieve that lofty target.

The club have done their bit raising vast sums from functions and initiatives through all age groups. Patrons and friends have risen to the occasion with amazing generosity, being badgered regularly by the persistence of Mr Scargill.

The club are hugely grateful for the support and goodwill shown by the rugby – and even the non-rugby – community of the valley and beyond. There is still a small deficit to be filled but that is manageable within project budgets.

The process of applying for outside funding called for equal tenacity to ensure forms were properly completed and correct and acceptable wording was used.

Club secretary Ken Bernard, along with wordsmith Tony Rising, set about this process and, to their credit, all the applications made for funding were successful.

The biggest sum was £328,000 (plus a £5,000 per year revenue grant) from the Sport England Big Lottery Fund.

Bradford Council gave £50,000 and Ilkley Parish Council £30,000. The unstinting support from Bradford Metropolitan District Council’s sport and leisure executives and Ilkley parish councillors has been invaluable.

The RFU has granted £100,000 and awarded an interest-free loan of a similar amount.

The Club's status as a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) produced a £125,000 bonus as all qualifying donations attracted a tax rebate for the club.

David Adam, the outgoing treasurer, has done a great job in ring-fencing all project monies and producing the documentation required by the taxman.

Club member Ken Senior lent his considerable experience to the later stages, dealing with civil engineering issues which are magnified by the club's location on the flood plain of the River Wharfe.

The man hours already expended on getting the project to the start line cannot be underestimated, and the club and the community has much for which to be grateful to the project development team.

All in all, this means that the £1.4m (£1.6m including VAT) project is ready to go.

The dawning of a new era for Ilkley Rugby Club is truly here.

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