Rochdale Sports Club to begin £170,000 improvement programme

Date published: 26 November 2019

Rochdale Sports Club has recently received over £120,000 in funding from various organisations to improve the facilities of the club, located on Bridgefold Road.

The Rochdale Cricket, Lacrosse and Squash Club, now known as Rochdale Sports Club, has been presented with £50,000 from Sports England, £56,775 from Viridor Environmental Credits Ltd and £15,000 from Rochdale Council. The club has also managed to raise a further £50,000 themselves.

Andrew Parton, of Rochdale Sports Club, said the group applied for funding from Sports England three years ago.

He said: “It didn’t happen overnight. We applied to Sports England around three years ago, Viridor was about 12 months ago and the council awarded us the money in October.

“They’re all tied together. We couldn’t get one without the others.”

The funds will go towards a complete refurbishment of the club’s function room and associated toilets, which Andrew said were in the worst condition among the proposed areas of improvement.

He said: “The function room is the worst one; it’s having £50,000 spent on that and then £28,000 on the toilets. They’ve not been touched in 25 years.”

The Rochdale Sports Club was built in 1994. Andrew says there had been some work done on the facilities around 18 months ago, but the club is investing more funds into improving their current resources.

As well as the plans for refurbishment, the sports club has proposed installing some outdoor changing rooms, improvements to the cricket and lacrosse training area, two squash courts, security fencing, alarms and CCTV.

Rochdale Sports Club has also been successful in raising £50,000 within the club itself.

Andrew said: “We’ve had comedy nights, had money from the brewery, charity drives, and we raise money through memberships.”

The work is set to begin in December and Andrew said they aim to finish within a year.

The club chairman, Andrew Dogson, has also expressed gratitude for the funding which will help to secure the long-term future of the club.