Wistaston sports association awarded £8,200 Cheshire East grant

Wistaston Sports and Leisure Association has been awarded a £8,200 grant to boost its bid to widen involvement in the local community.

The Cheshire East Council grant will support WSLA’s application for £75,000 from environmental body Wren to help pay for a pavilion extension.

This would enable more community use of the building and facilities.

The WSLA is an independent ‘not-for-profit’ organisation to encourage sport and leisure activities in the village.

Cllr Margaret Simon, Cheshire East ward Member for Wistaston, said: “I am delighted Cheshire East has been able to help with grant funding towards this project.

“The grant has helped to move the project forward and, ultimately, will enable the association to develop better facilities, which will benefit the community as a whole.”

Cllr Derek Millington, Wistaston parish councillor and WSLA chairman, said: “With this cheque, alongside other funding from the National Lottery via Sport England and Wren, we are able to bring our extension project forward by 12 months.

“The extension to the pavilion is much needed and we hope once completed it will help us to really put WSLA on the map by attracting more people to join us and enjoy the benefits of our facilities.”

Membership of the association is open to all local residents and sports club can affiliate to the association.

Three football clubs, the village cricket club and the local community council are affiliated.

WSLA treasurer and parish Councillor Ray Westwood added: “This is an ambitious project and it really took some organising in terms of a funding plan.

“We are really pleased with the way that Cheshire East has supported us.

“The new extension will more than double the size of our function room and we’ll also have a large patio area, where people can watch the cricket and football.

“We currently have membership of around 500 people.

“In addition, our function room is rented out about 30 times a month to various community groups – so we’ve had something in the range of 10,000 visits from the community already and we want improve on that and make it even greater.”