Work starts on £1.1m project

11:30am Friday 21st September 2001

Work has just started to build £1.1 million of much-needed new sports and community facilities at Broad Green's Canterbury Road recreation ground .

The far-reaching project is a partnership between Croydon Council and Sure Start a multi-million pound government programme designed to improve the health and well-being of families and children in deprived areas like Broad Green.

A 600 sq.m building is being constructed on the recreation ground's former children's play area and will house a creche, day nursery, community hall and sports changing facilities. Sure Start and the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership will run the day nursery, which will provide 42 nursery places.

There are also plans for an IT suite to be included on the site, to enable adult education and training courses to be provided aimed at local single parents in particular. The single-storey complex has been designed to be fully-accessible to those with disabilities.

In addition, the present synthetic outdoor sports pitch (which will stay open until January 2002) is to be extensively overhauled. It is to be stripped and replaced with a new, top quality synthetic surface for hockey and football, while more efficient floodlights are also to be installed.

There will be a new soft surface children's playground and this will boast much improved play equipment, including further skating facilities to add to an existing skate ramp.

The target is to complete the whole project, which also includes landscaping and the installation of CCTV cameras, during spring next year.

Meanwhile, construction of a new sports pavilion and community hall worth half-a-million pounds is set to start towards the end of October this year at Green Lane sports ground in Thornton Heath.

The new 340 sq.m, single-storey building replaces a previous pavilion destroyed by fire in 1999. Facilities will include a community hall, kitchen and sports changing facilities.

Again the building has been designed to be fully accessible to those with disabilities and the project is due for completion during spring 2002. CCTV is also a feature of the initiative.

Additionally, a half-acre corner of the 10 acre sports ground will be used by the council to provide four much needed affordable family homes. The three-bedroom properties, to be funded in partnership with a housing association, are being built as part of the local authority's ongoing programme to meet family housing needs in the borough.

Construction is set to start in the New Year, once the partner housing association has been appointed.

Said Croydon's cabinet member for cultural services, Councillor Raj Chandarana: "These very exciting initiatives are a direct response to the needs of the local communities they'll serve. They highlight our commitment to improve the welfare, health and quality of life of residents, whether it's economically, socially, or just as importantly through enhanced sports and recreational facilities."