Third time lucky for Robertsbridge College

A bid to Sports England - the third the College has made - resulted in them hitting the jackpot with a £150,000 grant, the highest the body has awarded in South East England.

East Sussex County Council has said it will contribute in the region of £700,000 from its capital programme.

Robertsbridge College operations manager John Crouch said: “We have been desperate for this. The existing gym was built in 1957 when the college had 350 pupils and it is freezing cold and leaks. Now we have 630 pupils and need a modern facility.”

Now the College can go ahead an apply for permission to build a state-of-the-art sports hall on the college site, which will also be for community use.

The new Sports hall will contain four badminton courts, changing rooms and toilet facilities and will provide full disabled access.

The bid to Sport England was put together by Robertsbridge Community College, following extensive research with the local community and consultation with East Sussex County Council as to the type of facility that would be best suited to community need.

It is anticipated that work on the Sports hall will commence during the course of the next academic year, with an opening date scheduled for September 2013.

Headteacher, Simon Potten, commented: “It has long been a dream of the College to be in a position to develop such a facility for use by the local and wider community.

“We are obviously extremely grateful to Sport England and East Sussex County Council for granting the necessary funding to begin the project.

“Research has shown us that people of all ages in the Community enjoy participation in sport on a regular basis and we are all very excited to be able to offer adequate facilities that mean that they will not have to travel so far afield.

These are exciting times for the College and we look forward to further work with the Community to ensure that they continue.”